Naju City - Naju Transportation Co., Ltd., No Charges Concluded in Subsidy-Related Investigation

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong] Naju City in Jeollanam-do has concluded that there is no suspicion regarding the citizen social group's accusation that the city excessively paid subsidies to the local transportation company, Naju Transportation Co., Ltd.

According to the city on the 11th, the Naju Police Station notified on the 12th of last month that there were no charges against the Jeollanam-do Province, Naju City, and executives and employees of Naju Transportation, who were accused of breach of duty, neglect of duty, and violation of laws related to local government subsidy management.

Previously, a provisional Naju citizen social group raised suspicions including excessive calculation of labor costs for Naju Transportation drivers, failure to settle subsidies, non-use of the national subsidy management system, and payment after offsetting recoverable subsidies.

These groups filed a complaint with the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office on August 30 last year against nine people including officials from Jeollanam-do, Naju City, and executives and employees of Naju Transportation.

In response, the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office transferred the case to the Naju Police Station on August 31, and a large-scale investigation related to Naju Transportation subsidies began with witness investigations starting on September 28.

The police conducted additional investigations on the results of the residents' audit request related to Naju Transportation subsidies announced by Jeollanam-do, along with requests for investigation materials and witness and suspect interrogations, but found no evidence of wrongdoing by the suspects and decided not to prosecute, thus closing the case.

The city stated that although the investigation and residents' audit request resulted in no charges and disciplinary actions for related officials, it plans to implement extensive improvements regarding the shortcomings in subsidy-related work.

First, regarding overlapping subsidies, when promoting the Safe Return Bus project, the city plans to pay project costs based on objective costs and exclude project costs that overlapped with local bus loss compensation when calculating transportation costs.

Additionally, to reduce project costs, the city will review and improve methods such as replacing routes with low ridership with Safe Return Taxis.

For transfer, transportation card, and student discount loss compensation, overlapping parts will be identified and recovered, and since last year, loss compensation has been paid without overlap.

Regarding criticisms of inadequate processing of loss compensation settlements, the city is promoting actual settlements of loss compensation and financial support funds.

In particular, through a standard transportation cost service, the city explained that it is subdividing existing settlement tasks, securing all supporting documents for each item, and promoting comprehensive settlements including parts requiring specialized knowledge in transportation cost items.

Regarding route cancellations causing passenger inconvenience, the city plans to prioritize preventing recurrence by recovering subsidies and imposing strong administrative measures based on the results of investigations into all route cancellations.

Furthermore, the city is developing a cancellation verification program using the Bus Information System (BIS) and excludes subsidies related to route cancellations when paying public transportation subsidies.

The city will start the fourth Naju City Transportation Basic Plan establishment project this month to revitalize public transportation through efficient route reorganization and minimize the annual increase in loss compensation.

The project will address adjusting branch routes (buses operating in eup, myeon, and dong areas) for efficiency, shortening operation sections of trunk line buses (metropolitan buses between Gwangju and Naju), reducing maintenance costs through bus downsizing, demand-responsive public transportation in remote areas, and linking with 100-won taxis.

A city official said, “Along with the project, we will do our best to derive a ‘Naju-type public transportation model’ by promoting practical route reorganization reflecting the demands of citizens, the actual users of public transportation, through resident briefings and public hearings.”

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong bong2910@asiae.co.kr

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