[Reporter’s Notebook] Why Are There Zero Cases of Government Officials’ Corporate Card Prepayment?

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] "Even recently, there has been absolutely no prepayment using government officials' corporate cards. I had some hope since the government encouraged prepayment... But are they really doing it?"

This is a complaint from a restaurant owner near the Government Sejong Complex on the 21st. On the 8th, the government announced that it would allow government officials to prepay business promotion expenses to revitalize domestic demand weakened by COVID-19, especially by strengthening the 'final purchaser role of the public sector.' However, two weeks after the announcement, not a single case of corporate card prepayment has occurred, turning merchants' expectations into disappointment.

The minimal prepayment performance is largely due to the bureaucratic culture of inertia within government organizations. On the 14th, the Ministry of Economy and Finance prepared and delivered a revised '2020 Budget Execution Guidelines' containing usage instructions for prepayment to each ministry.

According to this, when prepaying business promotion expenses, prior internal approval must be obtained for basic expenditure information such as the purpose of expenditure, expected amount, and location. At this time, to prevent prepayment from being concentrated on certain vendors, each ministry is to collect and coordinate prepayment plans from departments to establish and manage the ministry's prepayment plan and its implementation.

Also, in cases of emergency work related to COVID-19, business promotion expenses can be used without receipts even on statutory holidays and weekends. Prepayment is allowed except for industries already restricted from using business promotion expenses, such as entertainment bars, saunas, golf courses, and casinos. Regarding the scale of prepayment, it is specified that 'efforts should be made to execute at least 20% of the remaining business promotion expenses.' For example, if the annual business promotion budget is 1.2 million KRW and 200,000 KRW has already been spent, leaving 1 million KRW, then at least 200,000 KRW should be prepaid during the second quarter (April to June).

However, among frontline government officials, the perception of 'Am I really allowed to prepay?' still prevails. Although the Ministry of Economy and Finance delivered the guidelines to each ministry, the affiliated ministries have yet to present clear standards. Regarding the reason for the lack of concrete standards for using business promotion expenses, officials in each ministry say that 'the Ministry of Economy and Finance's execution guidelines are ambiguous.' Since prior approval must be obtained by specifying the purpose and location of the business promotion expenses, there is uncertainty about whether officials will be held accountable if the actual use differs from the plan in cases of unclear future plans.

There is also concern about the appropriate level of prepayment proportion. The Ministry of Economy and Finance said to prepay 'at least 20%,' but there is worry that if a ministry decides first and the proportion is too high or too low compared to other ministries, it may be criticized. They are essentially waiting, saying, "Let's observe the situation in other ministries first."

As President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly emphasized, the key to overcoming the impact of COVID-19 is speed. Since prepayment was allowed to break the existing spending habits of government officials to minimize domestic demand contraction, it is time to accelerate so that this prepayment measure does not remain mere desk administration.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.