Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon’s business promotion expenses for the fourth quarter of last year were confirmed to be one-sixth of those of his predecessor, Minister Park Beom-gye.
According to the legal community on the 26th, the Ministry of Justice recently disclosed the details of Minister Han’s business promotion expenses for the fourth quarter of 2022. Business promotion expenses are funds used by public officials for external duties at ministries or the National Assembly. They are commonly called 'panggongbi' and are used for meals or events.
According to the disclosed details, Minister Han spent 5,086,000 KRW over 15 occasions from October 1 to December 31 last year.
He spent 2,040,000 KRW on providing winter supplies to 34 janitors and security guards working outside in the Ministry of Justice building during the winter season, and 1,105,000 KRW on gifts such as chocolates as encouragement for 65 children of employees taking the College Scholastic Ability Test. The remaining approximately 1,900,000 KRW was used for meal expenses with staff during visits to the National Assembly or policy sites.
The scale of Minister Han’s business promotion expenses was 17% of the 30,380,000 KRW spent over 96 occasions in the fourth quarter of 2021 under former Minister Park Beom-gye, and 53% of the 9,518,580 KRW spent over 15 occasions in the fourth quarter of 2020 under former Minister Chu Mi-ae.
Deputy Minister of Justice Ino Gong was also found to have spent less on business promotion expenses than his predecessors. Deputy Minister Ino held 27 department head and staff meetings in the fourth quarter of last year, using a total of 6,574,300 KRW in business promotion expenses. This was significantly less than the 20,955,000 KRW in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 10,012,000 KRW in the fourth quarter of 2020.
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