Gwangju City's Private Consignment: Inconsistent Fees and Poorly Managed Contracts

Seo Imseok Calls for Comprehensive Review and Establishment of Standards

Seo Imseok, Gwangju City Councilor.

Seo Imseok, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Nam-gu 1), raised concerns about the fairness of Gwangju City's payment of private consignment fees, the inadequacy of consignment contracts, and the perfunctory operation of the Consignment Operation Review Committee during the 2024 fiscal year settlement review of the Special Budget and Accounts Committee.

Currently, Gwangju City pays consignment fees for only 13 out of a total of 73 private consignment projects (18%), but the fee rates vary significantly, ranging from a minimum of 0.91% to a maximum of 7.93%. Notably, even among multiple private consignment projects operated by the same department, the fee rates fluctuate from 0.91% to 5.0%.

Seo pointed out, "Because there are no clear standards for calculating the fees, arbitrary figures are being applied to each project and each department."

Furthermore, although Gwangju City is required by relevant ordinances to explicitly state the fee or cost in contracts, 5 out of 13 consignment agencies (38%) did not specify the fee in their contracts. In some departments, there were neither relevant guidelines for the fees nor any fee clauses in the contracts.

Poor contract management was also highlighted. Some contracts showed repeated clauses, so-called "copy-and-paste" traces, which revealed fundamental problems in document management.

Last year, the Private Consignment Operation Review Committee held a total of nine meetings, but seven of them (78%) were conducted as non-face-to-face written meetings. The main reason for the switch from in-person to written meetings was found to be a lack of quorum due to insufficient attendance.

Seo stated, "It is difficult to say that responsible deliberation took place when even important meetings dealing with private consignment implementation plans exceeding 10 billion KRW were held non-face-to-face," raising questions about the effectiveness of the Review Committee.

In addition, according to the Local Accounting Act, private consignment agencies are required to purchase financial guarantee insurance when performing accounting tasks. However, based on data submitted by Gwangju City last year, 9 out of 80 cases were not insured. Errors in the initial submitted data were also discovered, indicating basic negligence in management by the responsible departments.

Seo emphasized, "A thorough inspection and the establishment of standards for the entire private consignment system are necessary to ensure administrative efficiency and prevent the waste of citizens' taxes," and officially requested an audit by the Audit Committee.

In response, Audit Committee Chair Lim Taehyung said he would prepare if the council made a request, and Deputy Mayor for Administrative Affairs Ko Gwangwan replied, "We will establish city-level standards and do our utmost to ensure systematic operation of private consignment projects."