Seoul Metropolitan Council Restores Budget Cut by Seoul City for Seoul Institute of Technology Research

Seoul Metropolitan Council Urban Safety and Construction Committee Realizes Seoul Institute of Technology Budget... Seoul City’s Unilateral Cut; Seoul Institute of Technology Budget Increased by 1.8 Billion KRW, Entire 4.4 Billion KRW Cut from Jicheon Renaissance Project Lacking Basic Plans and Resident Consultation... To Resolve Unrealistic Issue of Annual Maintenance Budget of Around 10 Billion KRW for 16 Years Since Cheonggyecheon Restoration, 80 Million KRW Added for Research on ‘Cheonggyecheon Maintenance System Efficiency’ Aiming for Organizational Diagnosis and Budget Reduction through Seoul Facilities Corporation Efficiency Measures

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Seoul Metropolitan Council's Urban Safety and Construction Committee (Chairman Seong Heum-je) announced that after careful deliberation during the preliminary review of the 2022 fiscal year budget proposals under the jurisdiction of the Urban Safety and Construction Committee's affiliated offices, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Safety General Office, Fire and Disaster Headquarters, and Water Circulation Safety Bureau, on December 1, they resolved to reasonably adjust and amend the proposals to better reflect reality.

In particular, the committee increased the reduced budget of 1.8 billion KRW for the operation of the Seoul Institute of Technology.

The committee stated, “We restored the budget cuts made unilaterally and without reasonable standards by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in a realistic manner, and boldly cut budgets that lacked project specificity or had low urgency, thereby establishing and applying budget review criteria,” sharing their review reflections.

Regarding the Safety General Office’s budget proposal for the ‘Seoul Institute of Technology Operation Support’ project, the city had unilaterally cut the subsidy to 15.859 billion KRW from the 21.424 billion KRW subsidy consent proposal submitted to the council in August, resulting in a decrease of about 1.8 billion KRW in research funds essential to the institute’s core functions compared to the previous year, putting the institute’s fundamental operations at risk. Therefore, the committee increased the budget by 1.8 billion KRW to reflect reality.

On the other hand, the ‘Financial Support for Long-term Unexecuted Road Realization Response in Autonomous Districts’ project, despite being a matching project with autonomous districts, had experienced difficulties in matching and compensation negotiations between the city and districts. Thus, the committee reduced 35 billion KRW out of the 43.7 billion KRW budgeted, on the premise that it would be sequentially budgeted through supplementary budgets, and adjusted some other non-urgent project budgets.

Additionally, among the Water Circulation Safety Bureau’s budget proposals, three detailed projects under the Stream Renaissance project?‘Jeongneungcheon Cultural Complex Space Creation’ with 1.64 billion KRW, ‘Hongjecheon Historical and Cultural Street Creation’ with 1.38 billion KRW, and ‘Waterfront Infrastructure Creation for Dorimcheon Commercial Area Revitalization’ with 1.38 billion KRW?totaling 4.4 billion KRW, as well as the ‘Deoksugung Stone Wall Old Waterway (Jeongneungdongcheon) Creation Project’ with 120 million KRW, were fully cut due to incomplete basic planning and lack of resident opinion gathering, pointing out these as premature projects.

However, for Cheonggyecheon, which opened in 2005, an unrealistic issue persists where about 10 billion KRW is spent annually on maintenance and management even after 16 years of restoration. To address this, the committee realistically adjusted the budget by increasing 80 million KRW for a research project titled ‘Cheonggyecheon Maintenance System Efficiency Improvement Plan,’ aiming to diagnose the organization related to Seoul Facilities Corporation managing Cheonggyecheon facilities and to devise budget-saving measures through work efficiency improvements.

Regarding the Fire and Disaster Headquarters’ budget, since it concerns citizens’ lives and safety, the committee reduced 4.346 billion KRW from non-urgent budgets and increased budgets for urgent projects: 220 million KRW for ‘Fire Truck Replacement and Reinforcement,’ 514 million KRW for ‘Rescue Equipment Reinforcement and Maintenance,’ 322 million KRW for ‘Fire Truck Passageway Environment Improvement,’ and 827 million KRW for ‘Fire and Disaster Safety Auxiliary Equipment Distribution and Maintenance,’ totaling an increase of 4.346 billion KRW.

Chairman Seong Heum-je expressed deep regret that the Seoul Metropolitan Government, despite the budget being composed of citizens’ hard-earned taxes and needing to be reasonably and realistically allocated in the right places, overlooked this fact and allowed the budget to become a tool for political confrontation. He added, “The committee prepared the amendment with as much restraint as possible to ensure a more realistic and rational budget allocation from the citizens’ perspective.”