Dongjak District Overhauls Litigation Cost Recovery System to Prevent Budget Leakage

Aiming to Enhance Efficiency and Prevent Budget Leakage

On November 5, the Dongjak District Office in Seoul (Mayor Park Ilha) announced that it has introduced an integrated and dedicated management system for the recovery of litigation costs starting this month, aiming to enhance efficiency and prevent budget leakage. Previously, each department was responsible for recovering litigation costs individually, but cases of unrecovered funds arose due to a lack of expertise caused by personnel changes.

Park Ilha, Mayor of Dongjak District. Provided by Dongjak District Office.

As of October this year, there were 93 unrecovered cases, amounting to approximately 488 million won, which accounted for 35% of total litigation costs. Of these, 68% had remained unrecovered for more than three years, highlighting the urgent need for systematic management.

In response, Dongjak District has centralized the work of recovering litigation costs under the Planning and Coordination Division, which is staffed with specialized personnel. The entire process-from applying for the confirmation of litigation costs, sending out payment notices, encouraging payment, to taking enforcement actions against defaulters-will now be handled collectively by the Planning and Coordination Division according to established guidelines.

The district also streamlined the approval process, reducing the number of approvals required from the director from up to four times to just once, thereby improving work efficiency. For cases involving individuals without financial means or where the cost of recovery outweighs the benefit, the district plans to forgo recovery efforts.

Mayor Park Ilha stated, “By integrating the litigation cost recovery work that was previously dispersed across departments, we will strengthen administrative efficiency and fiscal soundness. We will continue to closely monitor to ensure that taxpayers’ money is not wasted.”