"Illegal Private Consignment of Resident Participation Budget Center"... Incheon City Requests Investigation Through Audit

Unfairness Pointed Out in Peace City Creation Contest Selection
Improper Execution of Subsidies by Private Organizations Detected

It has been revealed that the execution of subsidies and the selection of private consignment contractors related to the resident participation budget in Incheon City were carried out illegally and improperly. Some projects are expected to require investigation.

The city announced on the 25th that, as a result of an internal audit of resident participation budget projects conducted over three months since April, several issues were identified, leading to administrative actions including three corrections, eleven warnings, and seven improvements/notifications. It also plans to take strict measures such as recovering subsidies and requesting investigations for some private consignment projects.

According to the audit results, Incheon City judged that the operation of the Resident Participation Budget Support Center, which is an inherent task that local governments cannot delegate, was illegally consigned to a specific organization in 2018.

Furthermore, it was explained that 21 members and related persons of the private consignment corporation were selected as private support officers, instructors, operating committee members, and advisory committee members of the Resident Participation Budget Center, and a total of 410 million KRW in personnel-related budget was paid over four years, undermining fairness. In the case of instructors, six people without experience in resident participation budget activities were inappropriately selected, and some were paid excessive allowances by assigning instructor grades differently from the actual ones.

The "Peace City Creation Contest Project," which supported a total budget of 915 million KRW to 17 private organizations from 2019 to 2022, was also pointed out. The city stated that among the 30 members of the contest project review committee, seven private review members belonged to seven organizations that applied for the project every year and received 435 million KRW without rejection, raising doubts about the fairness of the selection process.

It was also found that despite the original projects being canceled or reduced due to COVID-19, making it impossible to achieve the objectives, similar contest projects were continuously selected every year. Some projects were limited to citizen lectures and events, but in reality, exploration-type projects that did not meet the objectives, such as excursions, were included and supported.

Cases of improper budget execution were also detected, such as a lack of supporting documents during subsidy execution or personnel expenses being paid to employees belonging to the subsidized business operators.

An official from Incheon City stated, "Based on the results of this audit, we will improve factors that undermine the soundness of financial projects and strengthen guidance and supervision in the future to ensure that subsidies are not wasted."