Incheon Gyeongsillyeon "Dual Position Compensation Disclosure, Strengthening the Review System Needed"
About 40% of Incheon City Council members hold paid concurrent positions, but the amount of compensation has not been disclosed. Additionally, one council member failed to report a concurrent position while operating a facility awarded through a bid managed by an Incheon city-invested institution.
On the 6th, the Incheon Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice announced that, based on a survey of concurrent positions of Incheon City Council members through an information disclosure request in March, 15 out of 40 council members (37.5%) were identified as holding 'paid concurrent positions.' Among them, three are also engaged in real estate leasing.
However, none of these council members disclosed the amount of compensation received from their concurrent positions or rental income.
Furthermore, Council Member A operates a cafe in their electoral district that was awarded through a competitive bid by the Incheon Facilities Corporation, which is invested in by Incheon City, but did not report this concurrent position. Except for this cafe, Council Member A has reported four other concurrent positions.
Article 44 of the Local Autonomy Act prohibits local council members from engaging in profit-oriented transactions with facilities operated by the relevant local government or institutions invested or endowed by the local government. Because the facility is managed by the Incheon Facilities Corporation, there is controversy over whether Council Member A deliberately omitted the concurrent position report.
The Incheon Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice has demanded that the Incheon City Council Ethics Committee promptly discipline Council Member A.
They also argued that the City Council should institutionalize the disclosure of compensation for concurrent positions held by council members and establish improvement measures such as strengthening review and disciplinary systems.
The Incheon Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice emphasized, "The disciplinary standards for violations of concurrent position reporting and prohibition of profit transactions include warnings, public apologies, and suspension of attendance (within 30 days), but even suspension of attendance is not much different from 'paid leave.' To uphold the purpose of prohibiting concurrent positions and preventing conflicts of interest among local council members, urgent institutional improvements are needed, including disclosure of compensation for concurrent positions (including real estate leasing), strengthening review and disciplinary systems, and restricting concurrent positions in real estate leasing that can generate unearned income."
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