No Deposit to Official Donation Account, Introduction to Sapling Supplier Instead
Saplings Purchased by Donor Perished in Heavy Rains
Hampyeong County in South Jeolla Province has become embroiled in a controversy over administrative negligence after it failed to follow proper donation procedures and ended up returning a donation of tens of millions of won from a former resident who requested the creation of a tree-lined street.
According to Hampyeong County on December 11, last April, Mr. A, a business executive originally from Hampyeong, delivered a bankbook containing 50 million won in his name to the county office, expressing his intention to donate the funds for the premium street tree planting project in Sonbul-myeon.
A donation ceremony was held, but since public project budgets cannot be executed directly from an account in Mr. A's name, it was difficult to utilize the funds as intended. In response, Hampyeong County introduced Mr. A to a sapling supplier.
Through this arrangement, Mr. A directly purchased 1,000 saplings (worth about 46 million won), and the county temporarily planted them on county-owned land with the plan to use them for the tree-lined street project in the future.
However, during a series of heavy rains this summer, about 300 saplings died. Mr. A, upon learning of this belatedly, lodged a complaint with the county citing poor management.
In principle, donations must be deposited into the local government's designated donation account or a specified donation recipient, after which the county convenes a donation committee to review and execute the donation.
An internal investigation by Hampyeong County revealed that the department head, Mr. B, did not properly inform Mr. A of the correct donation procedures and failed to follow the official administrative process for donations.
After continued complaints from the donor, the county refunded the amount spent on the saplings and returned it to Mr. A, effectively nullifying the sapling donation. Hampyeong County has since placed Mr. B on standby and requested disciplinary action from South Jeolla Province.
A Hampyeong County official stated, "We will overhaul all donation procedures to ensure that donors' intentions are not distorted or inconvenienced in the future."
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