Held Twice on April 17-18 and 24-25
Total Budget of 178 Million Won... Triple Compared to Last Year
District Official Explains "Deemed Necessary for District Development"
Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, is facing controversy for expanding its budget more than threefold compared to last year to promote a tourism-oriented workshop. Moreover, it is planned as a 1-night, 2-day event on weekdays, held twice for all employees.
With a poor financial independence rate in the 10% range and various projects suffering setbacks due to budget shortages, criticism seems inevitable as the district extravagantly invests a huge amount of taxpayers' money in an event aimed at employee unity.
Dong-gu plans to hold workshops twice for about 820 employees at a resort located in Sinan, Jeollanam-do, on the 17th-18th and 24th-25th of next month.
Although the workshop is promoted to enhance mutual understanding through communication among employees and to create an opportunity for district development through harmony, the schedule is essentially at the level of a leisure trip.
On the first day of the workshop, employees depart in the morning and, after arrival, have lunch without any special schedule. Then, a special lecture by the Sinan County Governor and a university professor is prepared. The rest of the schedule includes a team-building program (group harmony mission), but the remainder consists of a healing performance and an employee singing contest.
On the second day, a sports day is held, followed by lunch, then a tour around the Purple Bridge area for the purpose of advanced site exploration, before returning to Gwangju.
The total budget for this schedule is 178 million KRW. This is more than three times the 56.8 million KRW budget for last year's one-day workshop.
This budget is mainly spent on accommodation fees (41 million KRW), meal expenses (32.8 million KRW), and rental of items such as coffee trucks (20 million KRW). It is known that there are no plans to purchase alcoholic beverages.
While the intention of communication and harmony is good, voices are growing stronger that investing this much budget twice on weekdays for a 1-night, 2-day event is excessive considering the district’s difficult financial situation.
In fact, Dong-gu is reducing or seeking solutions for projects for residents due to budget shortages.
The "Study Room Temperature 26°C" project, which supports the installation of wall-mounted air conditioners in study rooms for school-age children from low-income families, saw its budget shortfall of 5 million KRW reduce the number of beneficiaries from 12 to 6.
The same applies to repair work at the 'National Sports Center,' a facility entrusted to Dong-gu. A leak occurred in the second-floor swimming pool, and water containing chlorine components seeped into the basement, resulting in a C grade in the 2021 safety inspection.
Although there is concern that prolonged neglect could cause structural corrosion and collapse, the district could not afford the approximately 1.8 billion KRW construction cost, applied several times for government public projects, and finally began repair work belatedly earlier this year.
The 'Chungjang Festival' global leap base facility, 'Chungjang Sangsang Cube,' faced a crisis as 1.1 billion KRW less than originally planned was secured for the project budget. The responsible department is struggling to find solutions such as securing city grants.
Dong-gu’s financial independence rate, an indicator of its ability to manage its own finances, was 14.15% last year, far below the national average of 28.3% for autonomous districts.
A financial independence rate of 10% means that government dependency, including national subsidies and local allocation taxes, reaches 90%. At this level, it is said that the district cannot even pay employees’ salaries with its own finances alone, making it difficult to carry out various projects.
One resident said, "Pursuing a tourism-oriented workshop when tightening the belt with a poor household budget is treating taxes as blind money," adding, "While ordinary people are struggling due to high prices, public officials are planning to hold singing contests at a resort, which is truly a betrayal of administration."
This opinion aligns with the results of a survey. According to a survey conducted last year by Nam-gu on 303 residents in the district, a whopping 66.3% of respondents identified festival and event expenses as areas to be reduced when budgeting.
Oh Juseop, Secretary General of Gwangju Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, said, "The local economy is shaky, so if the workshop is simply for friendship promotion, it should be reconsidered," adding, "It is doubtful whether holding such an event will have any practical effect."
In response, a district official explained, "The workshop is held annually as part of employee training plans, and the department judged it necessary to strengthen collaboration and cooperative relationships."
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