[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] The Hamyang County Council in Gyeongnam is facing controversy over favoritism for using county budget to pave private land with concrete and asphalt under the pretext of residents' long-standing projects.
The budget used to pave this private land was revealed to be from residents' long-standing project funds, raising accusations that Hamyang County and the Hamyang County Council have privatized public funds for personal use.
According to Hamyang County in Gyeongnam on the 20th, at the request of a certain Hamyang County council member, about 33 million KRW of county budget was spent in April to build dry stone walls and overlay concrete and asphalt on private land in Dangbon-ri, Anui-myeon, Hamyang County, Gyeongnam.
Since the budget used to pave the privately owned farm road came from the council member's residents' long-standing project funds, suspicions of vote-buying construction using public funds ahead of the nationwide local elections in June and favoritism disputes have arisen, making a fact-finding investigation inevitable.
The residents' long-standing project funds 'allocated' to council members are not official budget items but a kind of discretionary project funds implicitly executed by local governments to maintain smooth cooperation with the council by preparing the budget.
Some council members treat this budget as their own petty cash, exercising influence to select project areas, project details, budget size, and even awarding contracts through private agreements. Favoritism controversies openly continue, such as awarding construction contracts to companies that supported them during elections.
Hamyang County allocated a total budget of 2 billion KRW for 10 council members this year, with 200 million KRW per member, combining the main budget and supplementary budget.
Accordingly, council members use the budget mainly for their constituencies on projects such as ▲ village road paving ▲ remote area development projects ▲ well development ▲ farm road paving to resolve complaints and improve convenience for local residents.
Resident A said, "I understand that council members use taxpayers' money to resolve inconveniences for residents and for public interest, but paving private land to resolve some residents' inconveniences or increase property value with council members' discretionary project funds is hard to see as anything other than election-related favoritism."
Another resident B said, "Council members' residents' long-standing project funds should be used considering public nature and efficiency, strictly following priorities and carefully checking for the occurrence of other complaints." He added, "It is unacceptable for council members, who should monitor and check the use of taxpayers' money, to use public funds for their own election purposes."
Residents in the area responded that they had never heard of residents' long-standing project funds being allocated to council members. Many residents raised their voices demanding a thorough investigation to determine favoritism and strict measures against those involved if inappropriate budget execution is found.
In response, a county official explained, "The construction was done as a residents' long-standing project of the council member to resolve complaints, not as favoritism," adding, "We reviewed the validity of the project upon the council member's request and carried out the construction according to the complaints."
The council member who allocated the residents' long-standing project funds said, "The village head applied for the village farm road maintenance project and the budget was allocated accordingly," adding, "I do not know much about the project details."
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