[2020 National Audit] 5.27 Trillion KRW Used for Disaster Management and Relief Funds Across All Cities and Provinces

Representative Yang Gi-dae, Nationwide Execution Rate Only 80% by End of August... Incheon and Daejeon Exceed 90%

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] It has been revealed that out of the approximately 6.62 trillion won in disaster management funds and disaster relief funds accumulated to respond to nationwide disaster situations across 17 cities and provinces, 5.27 trillion won (79.66%) has been used.

On the 7th, Yang Ki-dae, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee (Democratic Party of Korea, Gyeonggi Gwangmyeong), analyzed the '2020 Disaster Management Fund and Disaster Relief Fund Status Data of 17 Metropolitan Local Governments' and found that as of the end of August, the total disaster management fund was 4.5557 trillion won, and the disaster relief fund was 2.0715 trillion won.

Looking at the usage details by each local government, two metropolitan local governments, Incheon and Daejeon, used more than 90% of these funds, while 11 metropolitan local governments including Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Daegu used more than 75%. Metropolitan local governments such as Chungnam, Chungbuk, and Sejong, where the incidence rate of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was relatively low, used less than 55% of the funds.

In particular, these metropolitan local governments have currently used 3.6322 trillion won from the disaster management fund, utilizing only 79.73% of the total accumulated funds.

The metropolitan local government with the highest execution rate of the disaster management fund was Incheon, which used 92.47%. Following were Daegu, Gangwon, and Gyeongnam, which spent 85.82%, 83.41%, and 80.36%, respectively.

On the other hand, Ulsan, Sejong, Gyeongbuk, and Jeju showed an execution rate below 60%, about 20 percentage points lower than the average execution rate of 79.7%.

Especially Gyeongbuk, which had the second highest COVID-19 confirmed case incidence rate at 58.03 per 100,000 people (based on the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's 2020.09.29 metropolitan incidence trends), showed a 51.31% execution rate, about 20 percentage points lower than the nationwide metropolitan local governments' execution rate, indicating a passive operation of the disaster management fund.

The metropolitan local governments with the highest execution rates of the disaster relief fund were Daejeon, Jeonnam, and Gyeongbuk, with 98.54%, 97.78%, and 92.01%, respectively, while Daegu, Chungbuk, and Chungnam showed significant differences with 6.11%, 4.42%, and 2.26%, respectively.

Assemblyman Yang Ki-dae stated, "Since disaster management funds and disaster relief funds are intended to prepare for disaster situations, passive operation inevitably reduces disaster response capabilities," and added, "Local governments on the front lines of COVID-19 prevention should actively use disaster and relief funds to respond to nationwide disaster situations and support small business owners and vulnerable groups facing economic difficulties."

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