[2020 National Audit] Employer Fraudulent Claims in Government-Funded Training Programs... 17 Billion KRW in the Last 5 Years

Kim Woong: "Management and supervision must be thorough"... More than 8 times increase last year

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Over the past five years, there have been approximately 2,700 cases of employers fraudulently receiving training budgets intended to improve the job skills of workers, with the amount of fraudulent claims reaching 17 billion KRW.

According to data titled "Annual Status of Fraudulent Claims in Nationally Funded Training Programs Over the Past Five Years," submitted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to Kim Woong, a member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee from the People Power Party, the number of fraudulent claims on nationally funded training budgets for employers over the past five years was 2,726 cases, with the amount fraudulently claimed totaling 16.88 billion KRW.

In particular, the amount of fraudulent claims last year surged more than eightfold compared to the previous year, reaching 8.57 billion KRW. On the other hand, the recovery rate of fraudulently claimed funds has steadily decreased from 88.01% in 2017 to 11.18% as of June this year.

Examining the types of fraudulent claims, the most common was violations of attendance management or falsification of records by applicant companies, accounting for 1,181 cases over five years. This was followed by submission of false documents (268 cases) and non-compliance with training periods or hours (185 cases). There were also 127 cases where support funds were received despite no training being conducted.

Assemblyman Kim stated, "It is necessary to prevent vocational training project budgets from becoming petty cash for employers and to ensure thorough management and supervision for substantial operation aimed at improving workers' job skills."

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