Assemblyman Yoon Young-deok Proposes Bill to Strengthen Financial Transparency in School Corporations

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] A bill has been proposed to prevent accounting fraud in private schools, which is repeatedly pointed out in Ministry of Education audits, not by a "closing the barn after the horse is lost" type of after-the-fact remedy, but by strengthening accounting transparency for proactive prevention.

On the 23rd, National Assembly member Yoon Young-deok (The Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Dongnam-gap) announced that he has taken the lead in proposing the "Partial Amendment to the Private School Act" and the "Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Information Disclosure of Educational Institutions" (abbreviated as the Educational Institution Information Disclosure Act).

The bills mainly focus on strengthening the financial operational transparency of school corporations.

Under the current Educational Institution Information Disclosure Act, educational institutions are limited to "schools, educational administrative institutions, and educational research institutions," excluding "school corporations" from the scope of information disclosure.

Yoon explained that excluding the corporation, which holds the final decision-making authority over private school operations, from the target institutions is problematic, and that school corporations should be designated as information disclosure targets to enhance the public nature of corporations operating only private schools.

Furthermore, according to the current enforcement decree of the Private School Act, school corporations are required to report and disclose their budgets and settlements to the competent authorities and make them publicly available on the school website for one year.

However, the short period of one year made it difficult for school members to understand the school's finances through the website.

Yoon said, "To strengthen the public nature of private schools, which receive trillions of won in government funding annually, and to prevent accounting fraud through after-the-fact patchwork audits by the Ministry of Education, the accounting transparency of school corporations must be enhanced," adding, "Therefore, I have prepared an amendment to extend the disclosure period for budgets and settlements to five years."

Meanwhile, the "Partial Amendment to the Private School Act," led by Yoon, was co-sponsored by Assembly members Kwon In-sook, Kim Seung-won, Min Hyung-bae, Park Hong-geun, Yoon Geon-young, Lee Gyu-min, Lee Dong-joo, Lee Yong-bin, Lee Yong-woo, Lee Tan-hee, Jin Sung-jun, and Hong Ki-won. The "Partial Amendment to the Educational Institution Information Disclosure Act" included participation from Kwon In-sook, Kim Seung-won, Min Hyung-bae, Park Chan-dae, Park Hong-geun, Lee Gyu-min, Lee Dong-joo, Lee Yong-bin, Lee Yong-woo, Lee Tan-hee, Jin Sung-jun, and Hong Ki-won.

Detailed information can be found on the National Assembly Legislative Information System.

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