Oh Se-hoon: "1 Trillion Won in Subsidies to Civic Groups Over 10 Years"... "I Will Eradicate Wrong Practices" (Comprehensive)

Village Community Projects, Social Housing, and Other Initiatives Led by Civic Group Veterans
Claims of Concentrated Support for Specific Political Organizations Involved in Projects
"A League of Their Own" Wasting Public Funds... "Seoul City's Treasury Turned into a Dedicated ATM"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon (photo) said on the 13th, "I will put an end to the behavior of treating citizens' tax money like pocket change and pursuing private interests under the name of 'citizens.'"

In his "Position on Setting Seoul Right" released that day, Mayor Oh stated, "Over the past decade, in the process of promoting private subsidies and private consignment projects in the civil society sector, we aim to correct deeply rooted wrong practices and normalize all abnormal things."

Mayor Oh specifically criticized, saying, "Over the past 10 years, the subsidies and private consignment funds paid by Seoul City in areas such as villages, urban regeneration, social economy, resident autonomy, and cooperation, not to mention housing, youth, labor, urban agriculture, environment, energy, and inter-Korean exchanges, have amounted to nearly 1 trillion won."

First, he pointed out the "their own league" of civic groups and city officials from civic groups, stating, "People from civic groups have been stationed as fixed-term public officials throughout Seoul City, overseeing the entire related projects from selecting consignment companies to guidance and supervision," and added, "They created their own villages and ecosystems by financially supporting the civic groups they belonged to." He referred to the establishment of "intermediate support organizations" in each autonomous district and their operation by other civic groups as a "pyramid of civic groups" and a "multi-level marketing scheme of civic groups."

Mayor Oh cited specific problematic projects such as △ village community projects △ youth projects △ social investment funds △ non-profit organization (NPO) support centers △ social housing. Regarding youth projects, he said, "A person from a civic group came to head the relevant department of Seoul City and blatantly concentrated support on a specific civic group. These groups then became financial channels, repeatedly issuing research orders to other civic groups, establishing such a structure," and added, "The Seoul City treasury, which is maintained with citizens' hard-earned tax money, eventually degenerated into an ATM exclusively for civic groups."

Regarding social housing, Mayor Oh said, "Although the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) could handle this, an organization called a socio-economic entity intervened, with Seoul City lending land, supporting interest, and even providing business fund loans. The source of the business funds they used was precisely citizens' tax money," and added, "These socio-economic entities repeatedly postponed, delayed, and deferred repayment of loans received from Seoul City, and there were cases where they failed to return tenant deposits, directly harming tenants."

Mayor Oh said, "I do not understand why this should be condemned as 'erasing the traces of former Mayor Park Won-soon,'" and added, "Correcting wrong administration is my duty as the head of Seoul City."

Meanwhile, in response to a question about whether he misunderstood the social economy, Mayor Oh replied, "I was the first to start social economy and social enterprises 10 years ago," and said, "While I acknowledge the positive aspects of social enterprises, if contradictions are found in the projects, it is necessary to point them out and correct them."

Seoul City has conducted audits on the aforementioned projects, drawing backlash from related civic groups. Since this press conference effectively declared war on civic groups, conflicts between Seoul City and civic groups supported by Seoul City are expected to intensify.

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