Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police to Focus on Investigating Social Welfare Corporation Corruption This Year

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will launch an intensive investigation into corruption in the social welfare sector this year.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Fairness announced on the 12th that it plans to focus on investigating corruption in the social welfare sector, such as the misuse of subsidies for social welfare facilities and violations related to unauthorized disposition of basic assets of social welfare corporations.

The specific investigation items include ▲ family-type and organizational-type corruption in social welfare corporations (facilities) ▲ illegal use of personnel expenses by employees of social welfare facilities operated by non-profit corporations ▲ kickback transactions in collusion with contractors for social welfare facility environment improvement projects ▲ illegal use of subsidies such as operating expenses for support projects for socially vulnerable groups ▲ illegal operation of profits from profit-making businesses of social welfare corporations ▲ embezzlement of personnel expenses of cooks in child welfare facilities, among others.

In particular, the investigation will focus on cases where special relatives or related parties manage facilities under social welfare corporations and misuse social welfare subsidies for purposes other than intended, deduct part of employees' wages as corporate contributions while operating social welfare facilities on consignment, or embezzle personnel expenses of cooks in child welfare facilities.

According to the current "Social Welfare Services Act," subsidies for social welfare facilities supported by the government or local governments cannot be used for purposes other than their intended use, and basic assets must obtain the governor's approval when being sold or leased as necessary for the operation of social welfare projects by the corporation. Violations of this law may result in imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won.

If illegal acts by social welfare corporations or facilities are discovered, reports can be made through the provincial special judicial police website, the provincial call center (031-120), or the Gyeonggi Province public interest reporting hotline (031-8008-2580).

Kim Young-soo, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Fairness, said, "Illegal acts of arbitrarily using subsidies with the perception that 'government money is blind money' are rampant in some social welfare facilities, harming the financial execution that should be used where necessary and undermining the trust of residents." He added, "Reporting plays a decisive role in uncovering subsidy corruption, so please actively report to protect socially vulnerable groups and create a fair Gyeonggi Province."

Meanwhile, last year, the special judicial police arrested 15 former and current representatives who committed illegal acts and sent them to the prosecution.

Last year, the province uncovered cases such as ▲ a facility for the disabled that arbitrarily used 38.2 million won of social welfare subsidies for the construction of a dog theme park operated by the representative personally ▲ a facility where the head of a local children's center embezzled 65.43 million won of personnel expenses and meal expenses for undernourished children for personal living expenses and children's education expenses ▲ a facility that embezzled 207 million won by illegally using personnel expenses and operating expenses of elderly and disabled welfare facility workers ▲ an organization that illegally operated an unregistered disabled welfare facility and collected usage fees, gaining 770 million won in unfair profits over five years ▲ and corporations that leased and changed the use of basic assets (real estate) without administrative approval to gain unfair profits.

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