Yeongsangang Environmental Office Conducts Inspection on Watershed Fund Management Practices

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] The Yeongsan River Basin Environmental Office announced on the 12th that from June to September, it inspected the management status of the Water Quality Improvement Special Account for fund projects, as well as the imposition, collection, and payment system of water usage charges, targeting local governments and water service providers in the jurisdiction, and requested corrections.

They inspected 24 local governments that implemented fund projects last year to check whether the Water Quality Improvement Special Account was established and the management status of project execution, confirming cases of unestablished accounts and insufficient local government budget allocation.

By local government, the fund project expenses as of last year were as follows: Hwasun-gun 9.162 billion KRW (21.8%), Boseong-gun 8.189 billion KRW (19.5%), Gwangju Metropolitan City 7.612 billion KRW (18.1%), Suncheon-si 6.342 billion KRW (15.1%), and the remaining 20 local governments supported 10.696 billion KRW (25.5%).

Issues identified included two local governments without the Water Quality Improvement Special Account, three local governments not complying with the local budget allocation ratio, and 76 cases of unreturned fund project expenses (18 local governments, 1.51 billion KRW).

In the investigation of the imposition and collection status of water usage charges, 23 water service providers including Gwangju Metropolitan City were surveyed regarding the status of chargeable areas, the appropriateness of imposition and collection, payment status, and whether interest on charges was properly paid.

As of last year, water usage charges collected were: Gwangju Metropolitan City 25.734 billion KRW (29.6%), Jeollanam-do (21 water service providers) 19.458 billion KRW (22.4%), and the Korea Water Resources Corporation supplying living and industrial water to Gwangyang and Yeosu industrial complexes collected 41.814 billion KRW (48.0%).

Issues by water service provider included omission of new payers in two cities/counties and non-payment of interest on water usage charges in one county.

A Yeongsan River Environmental Office official stated, “We plan to continue conducting annual inspections and, upon discovering issues, request corrective actions from the relevant local governments and continuously manage the implementation results to ensure that the water system funds established for water quality improvement are properly operated.”

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