Kang Dae-sik "Yongsan War Memorial staff embezzled 800 million won over 9 years... Not detected even after audits"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] It has been revealed that an employee affiliated with the War Memorial of Korea under the Ministry of National Defense embezzled approximately 850 million KRW over 560 instances spanning nine years since 2010. Despite the Ministry of National Defense and the Board of Audit and Inspection conducting nine audits during this period, the embezzlement was not detected.

Kang Dae-sik, a member of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly from the United Future Party, stated in a press release on the 23rd that an employee of the War Memorial Foundation’s Museum Wedding Hall embezzled public funds ranging from several tens of millions of KRW to over 100 million KRW.

According to Representative Kang, Mr. A joined as an administrative accountant in 2008 and embezzled public funds by either destroying related contracts and receipts after events to divert collected money or by altering the final accounting documents to pocket the difference.

However, despite the Ministry of National Defense and the Board of Audit and Inspection conducting five and four audits respectively on the War Memorial since 2010, the embezzlement case was not identified.

After the embezzlement was exposed in December 2019, the War Memorial Foundation held a disciplinary committee and dismissed employee A, while three managers received disciplinary actions such as reprimands and warnings. Mr. A was initially hired as a contract worker and recently converted to a public official position (permanent contract employee at a public institution). He mentioned in the memorial’s internal investigation committee that the embezzled funds were used for "entertainment expenses" and other purposes. The foundation filed a complaint with the Yongsan Police Station in December last year on charges of embezzlement of public funds in the course of duty. The Yongsan Police Station transferred the case to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office in March.

The foundation’s revenue-generating projects are operated through government subsidies and the memorial’s own income. As of 2019, subsidies exceeded 12.4 billion KRW. The revenue projects were initially managed under a mixed system of private, direct management, and leasing but were fully converted to direct management in 2006.

Representative Kang said, "The fact that over 800 million KRW was embezzled over nine years shows that the problem goes beyond an individual employee and reveals the failure of internal controls," adding, "There is a need to conduct a full investigation of institutions running their own revenue-generating projects."

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