Unnecessary Overseas Business Trips Shift Meal and Vehicle Costs
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Investigates Business Trip Practices of 41 Public Institutions in First Half of Year
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which uncovered inappropriate overseas business trips by executives of its affiliated public institutions, is launching a focused inspection.
On the 27th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced this in a press release. In February, the ministry received reports related to inappropriate overseas business trip practices by executives of energy-related public institutions under its jurisdiction. As a result of the investigation, multiple violations by the institution executives were uncovered.
The executives found guilty violated government guidelines requesting restraint on business trips during the pandemic. They conducted inappropriate overseas trips a total of 5 times (to 8 countries) and 7 times (to 14 countries) respectively, for purposes such as branch office and corporate business reporting with low urgency and necessity, and simple local inspections.
During the overseas trips, it was revealed that they engaged in inappropriate tourism by visiting nearby tourist attractions and using rental vehicles and guides provided for official purposes. While abroad, they received meals (worth approximately 3.2 million KRW) and local vehicles (worth approximately 2.56 million KRW) multiple times from officials of overseas branch corporations, which are supervised institutions.
They also violated rules during a period when social distancing measures were in place to refrain from gatherings such as dinners due to COVID-19. They held inappropriate accompanying meals four times with institution employees they met at the overseas business trip locations.
The ministry stated that it notified the relevant institutions to include personnel management measures such as official warnings to these individuals, recovery of improperly charged travel expenses, and consideration of disqualification upon future public office reappointment.
During the first half of the year, the ministry plans to conduct a focused inspection of overseas business trips by executives of 41 affiliated public institutions, and if any illegal or improper facts are confirmed as a result of the inspection, actions will be taken according to regulations, and related system improvements will be pursued.
Park Jaeyoung, Auditor of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, “We will do our best in the inspection to eradicate inappropriate overseas business trip practices and culture in the public service community on this occasion,” and added, “To ensure effectiveness in the future, we will conduct regular inspections and strive to establish a trusted public service culture.”
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