Kang Gi-seok, Gwangju Seo-gu Chairperson, Taking Credit with Parliamentary Budget

Parliamentary Promotional Souvenir 'Necktie' Used Personally by Residents and Public Officials

All Public Officials Return Them in a 'Farce'... Potential Violation of Public Official Election Act as 'Donation Act'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been revealed that Kang Gi-seok, chairman of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Seo-gu Council, used council promotional souvenirs as if they were his own, causing controversy.

Although other council members could have used the promotional souvenirs, the fact that he used them personally has been criticized as improper conduct for a chairman.

According to the Seo-gu Council of Gwangju on the 15th, the council set a total budget of 10 million won to produce 'council promotional souvenirs' and spent 8,668,000 won earlier this year to purchase 200 neckties at 30,000 won each and 100 tea sets worth 27,000 won each.

The remaining 1,332,000 won was fully used recently to purchase 300 tumblers.

The promotional souvenirs for council visits are used for promotional purposes by council members or the council itself to key figures and citizens who visit the council throughout the year.

However, only 10 necktie souvenirs remain in the council. This is within a period of less than six months.

This means 190 were used or are being kept by council members, and a council official explained that most were used by Chairman Kang.

The problem is that these promotional souvenirs were also used personally. It is known that they were distributed to residents of an apartment complex as well as to district office officials.

In this process, public officials who directly or indirectly received the souvenirs reportedly returned all of them by the 12th to avoid any election law controversies.

Chairman Kang's actions could be seen as a violation of the Public Official Election Act.

The election law clearly states that elected officials cannot give any gifts to residents of their constituencies regardless of the amount.

A representative from the Gwangju City Election Commission explained, "Although the items were not purchased directly, if they were delivered to specific citizens, it is necessary to make a comprehensive judgment, but there is a possibility that it could be considered a 'donation act.'"

Chairman Kang tried to formalize this issue and end it with an apology at the 285th 1st regular meeting on the 15th, but this rather drew criticism.

Despite the situation being more serious than expected, Chairman Kang appeared largely unconcerned.

Chairman Kang said, "I serve as the vice chairman of the National Association of City, County, and District Council Chairpersons and travel nationwide, so I always receive souvenirs. It is true that I requested a budget to produce Seo-gu Council souvenirs," adding, "I used them when meeting officials from other autonomous districts and distributed them to civil petitioners."

He also explained, "I gave them to public officials as a form of encouragement, so there should be no major problem."

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