Yoon Orders Strict Punishment and Recovery of Corruption in Private Organization Subsidy Audits

314 Billion KRW Confirmed as Fraudulent Use Out of 6.8 Trillion KRW

President Yoon Suk-yeol received a report on the audit results of government subsidies to private organizations on the 5th and instructed, "Thoroughly punish and recover funds related to subsidy corruption."

President Yoon gave these instructions on the morning of the same day, according to a written briefing by spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

Earlier, the Presidential Office announced the day before that a comprehensive audit of about 12,000 private organizations that received subsidies over the past three years revealed 1,865 cases of fraud and corruption in projects totaling 11 trillion won out of 68 trillion won in subsidies paid. The confirmed amount of fraudulent use alone was 31.4 billion won.

Specifically, a unification movement organization was caught giving lectures on regime overthrow movements and receiving subsidies by labeling it as a "National Hero Discovery Project." This organization also improperly paid lecture fees exceeding three times the regulation to individuals who did not prepare lecture manuscripts. In another organization, executives including the chairman used 24.5 million won in business promotion expenses for 245 cases to purchase alcoholic beverages, use in industries where subsidies are prohibited (such as entertainment establishments), or during weekends and late-night hours while promoting family organizations in the unification field.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government plans to take strong legal actions such as recovering subsidies, filing criminal charges, and requesting investigations. Additionally, based on the results of this investigation, the government will build a new subsidy system to fundamentally block fraud and corruption and enhance transparency in subsidies to private organizations by significantly strengthening management and supervision, pushing for strong institutional reforms. President Yoon also instructed the day before to "operate a reward system where the public directly monitors the people's tax money."

Furthermore, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and other ministries will conduct a zero-based review of the subsidy budgets for private organizations and promote a large-scale restructuring of these budgets. Starting with next year's subsidies for private organizations, the plan is to reduce the budget by more than 500 billion won, and the subsidy restructuring will not be a one-time effort but will continue over the next four years.