MoEF "International Financial Center Excessively Purchased Gift Certificates with Sports Festival Budget"

Budget Execution at International Financial Center Criticized in Comprehensive Audit

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] The International Financial Center was criticized for purchasing cash-equivalent gift certificates with most of the event expenses at the 2020-2021 staff sports competitions, which was deemed excessive.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 4th, the Ministry's Audit Office released the 2017-2021 audit report on the International Financial Center containing these details.

According to the audit report, the International Financial Center spent a budget of 62.43 million KRW over two years for the 2020-2021 staff sports competitions, of which 54.5 million KRW (87.3%) was spent on purchasing cash-equivalent gift certificates. This amount corresponds to about 500,000 KRW per employee annually.

The Audit Office pointed out, "The souvenirs provided at the center's sports events were cash-equivalent gift certificates that could be used for purposes other than the sports event itself, and the proportion of cash-equivalent gift certificates in the total sports event expenses was 88.6% in 2020 and 86.0% in 2021, which is excessive."

Concerns were also raised regarding the transparency of business promotion expenses. The International Financial Center paid 51.01 million KRW for holiday gifts to 484 related organization members in 2020-2021, but did not specify the recipients' affiliations or names.

Other issues pointed out included the Ministry of Economy and Finance failing to follow procedures to notify the center of the national treasury subsidy budget plan and the National Assembly's confirmed details, as well as omissions in the corporate card usage guidelines regarding restricted industries such as beer halls and cocktail bars, which are subject to clean card usage restrictions.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance stated, "We will continue to manage and supervise the issues pointed out through the comprehensive audit of the International Financial Center."