Gwangju Civic Education Group Demands "Office of Education to Disclose Public Corporation Guidance and Inspection Results"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] An educational civic group in the Gwangju area has urged the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education to disclose the results of guidance and inspection of public interest corporations.

The Citizens' Group for a Society Without Academic Elitism stated in a press release on the 24th, "According to the audit report released by the Board of Audit and Inspection in 2017, although the Gwangju Office of Education is supposed to guide and inspect public interest corporations within its jurisdiction, it was confirmed that 38 of these public interest corporations did not submit their fiscal year 2015 financial statements, and whether they have been continuously conducting the corporation's purpose projects has not been verified."

They continued, "In particular, regarding 26 public interest corporations that did not submit financial statements even once over five years (2012?2016), the Board of Audit and Inspection checked whether they disposed of their basic assets, and found that 12 public interest corporations disposed of the entire 2.9 billion KRW of basic assets without the approval of the Gwangju Office of Education. This reflects how lethargic and incompetent the Gwangju Office of Education has been in guiding and inspecting public interest corporations."

They especially claimed, "We filed an information disclosure request for the '2018?2020 Detailed Report on Guidance and Inspection of Public Interest Corporations' from the Gwangju East and West Education Support Offices, but they consistently responded with non-disclosure as if by agreement."

They added, "Citizens have no way of knowing whether there are suspicions of accounting fraud such as pursuing private interests under the guise of public interest, or whether assets are being managed efficiently. Furthermore, it is difficult to transparently monitor whether public interest corporations are continuing activities aligned with their establishment purposes in each area such as scholarships, research funding, academic work, and charity."

Moreover, they emphasized, "The practice of non-disclosure of the results of guidance and inspection of public interest corporations must be immediately corrected. If operational irregularities or corruption within public interest corporations are discovered but not disclosed, it disregards the public's right to know. If the Office of Education cannot protect this right, it has no authority to guide and inspect these corporations."

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