Jeonbuk Province, Over 60 Public Officials Disciplined Following Special Audit in Environmental Sector

Strict Accountability for Passive Administration Causing Resident Harm and Budget Waste
81 Administrative Dispositions, 61 Disciplinary Actions and Warnings

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Gominhyeong] It has been revealed that more than 60 public officials received mass disciplinary actions following a special audit on waste and odor issues in Jeonbuk Province.

This was shown in the "Special Audit Results on Illegal Waste and Odor in the Environmental Sector" disclosed by the province on its website on the 12th.

The audit was conducted by the province from January 29 to February 25, targeting 14 cities and counties to inspect the management, supervision, and response status of public officials regarding facilities emitting three major harmful environmental substances: illegal waste, odor, and fine dust, and to prepare improvement measures.

As a result of this audit, the province requested 81 administrative dispositions for the 14 cities and counties and personnel actions such as disciplinary measures and admonitions for 61 public officials.

Key issues pointed out in this audit include negligence in guidance and supervision, passive administrative dispositions, and wasteful spending of budgets. In the waste sector, Company A failed to subscribe to the waste disposal performance guarantee insurance but was neither ordered to subscribe nor fined, and no guidance or inspection was conducted.

Currently, about 200 tons of illegal waste are piled up at the site, and it is expected that 50 million KRW will be required for forced execution.

Since 2006, a waste disposal company has been operating illegally on city-owned land without any investigation, resulting in 700 tons of illegally piled waste on 1,162㎡ of city land, wasting 160 million KRW in forced waste disposal costs.

In the odor and fine dust sector, a subsidy of 28 million KRW for installing liquid fertilizer storage tanks was given to those who did not install livestock manure liquid fertilizer facilities, and 130 million KRW in project funds was supported even though biofilters or other odor reduction facilities were not installed in the liquid fertilizer storage tanks.

The province has decided to thoroughly verify the implementation status of the issues pointed out in this special audit going forward.

Park Haesan, the provincial auditor, said, "The audit results revealed many cases where cities and counties neglected active management and supervision efforts for facilities emitting the three major harmful environmental substances such as illegal waste," and added, "We hope this audit will serve as an opportunity to resolve the public's distrust in administration."

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