Rep. Yoon Jae-gap: 12.5 Billion KRW in Agricultural Subsidy Fraud Over 5 Years

Democratic Party of Korea Representative Yoon Jae-gap (Haenam·Wando·Jindo) / ⓒ Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] According to data submitted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and other agencies under the Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Food, and Maritime Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Representative Yoon Jae-gap (Democratic Party, Haenam·Wando·Jindo) revealed that the amount of fraudulent claims for national subsidies reached 22 billion KRW over the past five years.

The status of fraudulent subsidy claims by agency is as follows: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (746 cases, 12.46 billion KRW), Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (5 cases, 1.01 billion KRW), Korea Coast Guard (11 cases, 7.99 billion KRW), Korea Forest Service (11 cases, 480 million KRW), and Rural Development Administration (1 case, 4.07 million KRW).

In particular, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs ranked first in both the number of fraudulent claims and the amount of fraudulent subsidies among the five agencies investigated.

Over the past five years, regarding the crackdown on fraudulent claims by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the highest individual amount was by Mr. A, who fraudulently claimed 280 million KRW through the Ministry’s “National Food Cluster Project,” and the highest corporate amount was by Company B, which fraudulently claimed 670 million KRW through the “Rural Resource Complex Industrialization Project.”

Meanwhile, the project with the highest number of fraudulent claims by year within the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was the “Rice Income Compensation Direct Payment Project,” which was the project with the most cases detected in 2015 (135 cases), 2017 (38 cases), and 2018 (23 cases), three times during the investigation period.

Additionally, the “Agricultural Management Consulting” project supported in 2016 was identified as the project with the highest amount of fraudulent claims among the Ministry’s subsidy programs over the five years.

Representative Yoon Jae-gap pointed out, “The moral hazard regarding national subsidies is severe, with fraudulent claims amounting to 22 billion KRW,” and stated, “The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, with fraudulent claims totaling 12.5 billion KRW, must have the minister take direct and extraordinary measures.”

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