On Paper, "Nothing Unusual"... In Reality, Salaries Went to Family Accounts for 3 Years
"We Trusted Him Because He Was So Proficient": Wando County's Management System Proved Useless
A long-term contract worker at Wando County Office in South Jeolla Province is under police investigation on suspicion of siphoning off state subsidies worth over 100 million won for several years, including salaries for child welfare teachers at local children's centers. The employee is believed to have worked in the same department for an extended period and to have cleverly exploited blind spots in the administrative system, putting the county's lax management and oversight system under scrutiny.
On the 26th, Wando Police Station in South Jeolla Province announced that it had booked a contract employee in his 50s, referred to as Mr. A, who works for Wando County Office, on charges including occupational embezzlement and is currently questioning him.
Mr. A is suspected of being in charge of managing child welfare payments, including the Dream Start program, from 2022 to 2024 and embezzling subsidies totaling about 108 million won for personal use.
According to the police investigation, Mr. A's main method of committing the crime was creating so-called "ghost teachers." He took advantage of the gaps that arose during the period between when child welfare teachers, whose working hours are flexible, resigned for personal reasons and when new hires were recruited.
Mr. A allegedly fabricated work records to make it appear as if teachers whose contracts had ended were still working, and then diverted around 93 million won in salaries paid out under their names into bank accounts held by his family members. In addition, it was confirmed that during this process he improperly received about 15 million won in duplicate allowances for himself.
Mr. A's audacious crimes, which continued for several years, were not detected at all during Wando County's regular audits or settlement procedures. This was because he had been solely responsible for the work for more than five years, had become highly proficient in the practical tasks, and had benefited from an internal culture of "trusting and leaving it to him," which loosened the monitoring net.
The scheme, which had appeared flawless, unraveled late last year when Mr. A was transferred to another department. Although the payments were processed as normal expenditures in official documents, the full extent of the crime was revealed when his successor, while checking the details of salary payments, discovered that the actual account holders who received the deposits were members of Mr. A's family.
Once Wando County identified the misconduct, it immediately dismissed Mr. A and filed a criminal complaint with the police.
An official from Wando County said, "We have determined that this was the independent act of the employee in question, and we have already issued a notice to recover the full 108 million won that was embezzled. In accordance with the relevant laws, we plan to proceed with measures such as provisional seizure to secure the claims," adding, "Since this problem arose because a specific staff member handled the same work for too long, we will conduct a comprehensive review of all departments at Wando County Office to prevent any recurrence."
Immediately after receiving the complaint, the police launched a preliminary investigation and are questioning Mr. A to determine his exact motive and the specific ways in which the embezzled funds were used.
A police official said, "We are concentrating our investigative resources on clearly determining whether there were any additional acts of embezzlement or other related offenses."
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