Anti-Corruption Commission Recovers 54 Billion Won in Fraudulent Subsidies in First Half of Year

Sanctions Imposed Amounting to 10.8 Billion Won

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) announced that it recovered approximately 50 billion KRW in public financial payments from about 300 public institutions during the first half of this year.

On the 10th, the ACRC revealed that after inspecting the enforcement of the Public Finance Recovery Act sanctions across 308 institutions, including central administrative agencies, local governments, and education offices, the total amount recovered due to fraudulent claims was 54 billion KRW. The penalty surcharges imposed on these institutions amounted to 10.8 billion KRW. The combined total of recovered funds and penalty surcharges reached 64.8 billion KRW, representing about a 5% increase compared to the same period last year (61.8 billion KRW).

By institution type, local governments at the basic level accounted for the largest share of recovered funds, totaling 34.9 billion KRW (64.7%). This is attributed to the fact that basic local governments often directly disburse public financial payments. Regarding penalty surcharges, central administrative agencies, which implement large-scale policy projects, accounted for 9.5 billion KRW, representing 87.8% of the total.

By sector, the social welfare field, which has the largest public finance payment budget, saw the highest amount of recoveries. The recovery amount in the social welfare sector was 37.3 billion KRW (69%), with penalty surcharges imposed amounting to 9.6 billion KRW (89%).

Examples of fraudulent claims in the social welfare sector included beneficiaries of basic living security benefits who concealed income by purchasing expensive foreign cars under another person's name. Other cases reported involved receiving single-parent family support funds through sham divorces and applying for job creation support funds by falsely claiming to have hired employees.

The industry and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector showed the largest increase in recovery amounts compared to the previous year. The recovery amount in this sector was 11.4 billion KRW, a 257% increase (8.2 billion KRW) from the same period last year. Cases included unauthorized use of others' business ideas to receive startup support funds.

Based on this inspection, the ACRC plans to disclose the status of public finance budgets and the amounts of fraudulent claims by institution.

An ACRC official stated, "Since the enforcement of the Public Finance Recovery Act, we have been thoroughly recovering leaked public funds. We will continue to monitor which sectors are leaking public finances and whether sanctions are being properly enforced."