Daegu City Disciplines 15 Regular Public Officials for 'Improper Receipt' of Emergency Living Expenses

Employees who applied but returned or did not receive items are excluded from disciplinary action
7 non-hourly fixed-term public officials receive reprimands

The photo shows Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin delivering a greeting speech at the inauguration ceremony of Hong Eui-rak, former Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker, as the Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Daegu City Hall on the morning of the 1st. Photo by Yonhap News.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Dong-wook] Daegu City announced on the 23rd that it has requested disciplinary action against 15 public officials who improperly received emergency livelihood funds due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

By affiliation, Dong-gu had the highest number with 4 people, followed by Dalseo-gu (3 people), Jung-gu and Buk-gu (2 people each). Daegu City, Suseong-gu, Seo-gu, and Dalseong-gun each had 1 person. These individuals are expected to receive disciplinary measures such as salary reduction and reprimand.

The 'Daegu City Emergency Livelihood Fund Fraud Controversy' was triggered after it was belatedly revealed on June 9 that public officials, who were excluded from the payment target along with citizens with a median income of 100% or more during April to May, received between 500,000 to 900,000 KRW.

According to Daegu City, a total of 70 public officials from Daegu City and 8 districts/counties who received the emergency livelihood funds were confirmed, including 22 regular employees and 48 fixed-term employees. Fixed-term public officials are divided into general fixed-term employees who work full-time for 1 to 5 years and part-time employees who work between 15 to 35 hours per week.

In this regard, the Daegu City COVID-19 Low-Income Livelihood Support Committee (Chairman Professor Kim Tae-il) decided to provide emergency livelihood funds to 41 part-time public officials with low income levels. On the other hand, 7 general fixed-term public officials, whose income levels are not significantly different from regular employees, received admonition. Admonition is distinguished from disciplinary action but may still result in personnel disadvantages.

Among the 22 regular public officials, 15 were classified as subjects for disciplinary action, and 2 were classified as subjects for admonition. The remaining 5 were explained by Daegu City as public officials who applied for emergency livelihood funds for demonstration purposes at resident briefings, etc., but voluntarily returned or did not receive the funds.

A Daegu City official stated, "It was investigated that many lower-level young public officials who met the income criterion of below 100% of the median income were swept up in the atmosphere of 'let's just apply first' and applied."

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