Seodaemun-gu "Livelihood Supplementary Budget Review at Risk of Suspension Due to Opposition Party's Objection"
Seodaemun-gu, Seoul announced on the 24th that the review of the ‘2023 First Supplementary Budget’ for disaster preparedness and recovery, basic pension, and child allowance payments has been completely suspended due to conflicts between the district council members affiliated with the Democratic Party of Korea and the district office, the executive branch.
Seodaemun-gu stated, “It is very unusual for the review itself to be completely suspended, not just budget cuts or adjustments, even when looking at cases in other autonomous districts in Seoul.” The Seodaemun District Council is in a minority government situation with 7 members from the People Power Party and 8 members from the Democratic Party of Korea out of 15 council members.
Among the approximately 61.4 billion KRW in the supplementary budget proposal submitted by Seodaemun-gu to the district council, about 12.6 billion KRW is allocated for disaster recovery such as flood damage, and about 15 billion KRW is allocated for livelihood-related areas such as basic pensions and child allowances. The budget also includes 26.1 billion KRW in returned balances from national and city funds, and if the council’s review and approval continue to be suspended, an increase in interest burden for Seodaemun-gu is expected.
Seodaemun-gu claims that “the refusal to review the supplementary budget is a pretext based on backlash against the district council secretariat’s audit related to the misuse of training expenses by some council members.” The audit was conducted to examine the misuse of training expenses by council members and to prevent recurrence, but the refusal to review the supplementary budget citing the audit raises concerns about harm to residents.
Seodaemun-gu began an audit of the district council secretariat in May with the purpose of preventing recurrence after some council members were fined by the court in April for misusing training expenses. Seodaemun-gu pointed out, “It is problematic to boycott the budget review using the audit of a clearly proven wrongdoing as an excuse.”
Two current Democratic Party-affiliated council members of the Seodaemun District Council were fined 3 million KRW each by the first trial court in April for misusing the budget supported by the district for a ‘Jeju-do training’ in August 2021. They booked hotels and airline tickets, printed receipts, then immediately canceled the payments but still submitted the receipts to the district council secretariat and received about 1 million KRW each via bank transfer. It was revealed that they kept the remaining money by using cheaper accommodations and traveling by ferry instead of airplane.
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