Hong Nam-ki: "Special Activity Expenses Reduced by 40% During Moon Administration's 4 Years... Revolutionary Level" (Update)

Response at the plenary meeting of the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee on the 10th

Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, is responding at the plenary session of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held at the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee meeting room on the 10th. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suwan] Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance, stated on the 10th, "Since the launch of the current administration, the scale of special activity expenses has been reduced by 40.5% over four years."

At the plenary meeting of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Special Committee on the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Hong said, "The Blue House and the Presidential Secretariat have also significantly reduced their special activity expenses, and other ministries have cut them to what I consider a revolutionary extent."

Deputy Prime Minister Hong added, "Next year's special activity expenses have also been substantially reduced and submitted to the National Assembly."

In response to a question from Jo Hae-jin, a member of the People Power Party, asking whether it is necessary to maintain special activity expenses, he replied, "It is necessary to keep the special activity expense category."

He continued, "Investigation activities and counterintelligence work cannot always leave evidence through credit card payments. However, I agree with the major direction of making special activity expenses transparent so that they are used where truly necessary. In fact, we have been adjusting the budget in this direction."

Regarding the demand to disclose special activity expenses of all ministries, Deputy Prime Minister Hong expressed a cautious view.

He said, "Except for matters related to national security, special activity expenses are generally known. Since the budget details are usually carried out for special purposes, they should be more cautious about public disclosure compared to other budget projects."

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