[Reporter’s Notebook] The Budget Does Not Belong to the Budget Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance

“If the budget request forms are disclosed, people will know which budgets we have cut. Then they can also find out which department and who led those cuts. The responsible officers will probably be flooded with complaint calls, so how can normal work proceed?”

An official from the Budget Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance responded this way to a reporter’s question about why budget request forms are not disclosed. A budget request form is a document in which government ministries request budgets from the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Based on these forms, the Ministry increases or decreases budgets and then drafts the government budget plan. The Ministry keeps the budget request forms confidential, citing concerns about increased complaints and overburdened work.

The judiciary thinks differently. The Ministry of Economy and Finance is engaged in a lawsuit with media outlets and civic groups over the disclosure of budget request forms. The Seoul Administrative Court, which handled the first trial, refuted the Ministry’s grounds point by point. The court pointed out that “the circumstances claimed by the defendant (Ministry of Economy and Finance), such as work overload, are mere vague speculations or possibilities.” Instead, it ruled that disclosing the budget request forms “not only guarantees the public’s right to know but also contributes to effectively ensuring public participation in budget formulation.”

Considering the National Assembly’s budget formulation process, the Ministry’s concerns are excessive. The Ministry drafts the government budget plan and submits it to the National Assembly. Both the government’s and the National Assembly’s budget plans are transparently disclosed. Any citizen can compare and analyze the two budget plans side by side. They can identify which budgets the National Assembly cut or added and which constituencies’ budgets increased. However, there has been no report of lawmakers, aides, or secretaries who cut budgets receiving a flood of phone calls. Instead, evaluation, monitoring, and supervision by the media and civil society take place.

If the Ministry thinks the public will blindly rage against its budget restructuring, that is a big misconception. Our citizens actually dislike indiscriminate populism more. When lawmakers increase unnecessary budgets for their constituencies or when budgets are allocated without rigorous verification or feasibility, people shout, “Are you spending my taxes like this?” If the Ministry has saved precious budgets through restructuring, it should not hide it but rather boast and promote it to the public.

Even from a procedural standpoint, not just legitimacy, budget request forms should naturally be disclosed. According to Article 16 of the National Finance Act, the government must strive for “transparency in the budget process” and “public participation in the budget process.” For transparent budget formulation, it is essential to know the budget request forms initially prepared by each ministry. If disclosing the budget request forms during active budget discussions is burdensome, they can be disclosed after the final budget plan is released. The voices of the public who have seen the budget request forms can be judged by the Ministry and reflected in the next year’s budget plan.

Budgets do not belong to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Budget Office. They are the property of the people, formed from the taxes that citizens have arduously earned. There is no basis to say that the current situation, where people do not know how their taxes are used in the budget, is “legitimate.” The Ministry appealed after losing the first trial but reportedly has not yet submitted the grounds for appeal.