Gwangju City Councilor Hong Gi-wol Points Out "Full Budget Cut of Main Projects Seems Like 'Project Avoidance'"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City has faced claims that it is 'avoiding projects' after completely cutting some projects budgeted in the main budget.

On the 24th, Hong Gi-wol, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party, Dong-gu 1), raised concerns about the complete cut of 100 million won for the personal mobility device towing support under the Military Airport Transportation Bureau during the review of the 2022 first supplementary budget proposal at the 309th extraordinary session.

Personal mobility devices have seen a surge in demand as contactless transportation means in the era of infectious diseases, with safety accidents increasing 5.8 times from 19 cases in 2019 to 100 cases last year over three years.

Councilor Hong pointed out, “In this situation, Gwangju City has completely cut the budget for the personal mobility device towing support project citing reasons such as autonomous district tasks, effectively leaving the project to the autonomous districts while Gwangju City takes a bystander role.”

He also criticized, “Personal mobility devices are rapidly increasing in demand as contactless transportation means in the infectious disease era. It is an administrative action against the trend to completely cut the related budget when the metropolitan-level institutional support measures need to be strengthened.”

In response, Gwangju City stated, “Regarding the towing work alone, towing is a task of the autonomous districts, which includes personal mobility devices, so the budget was cut. However, since a series of issues regarding personal mobility devices have been raised, metropolitan-level measures will also be necessary.”

Councilor Hong also criticized the complete budget cut related to the installation of rest areas for mobile workers under the Labor Policy Office’s jurisdiction.

He said, “The Gwangju Metropolitan City Ordinance on the Installation and Operation of Workers’ Rest Areas specifies that rest areas for mobile workers can be established and operated by the mayor or through consignment, with institutional subsidy support. Nevertheless, Gwangju City only promoted it as an autonomous district public contest project and cut the entire budget citing no qualified applicants, undermining the ordinance’s intent and purpose.”

He added, “Since the budget is the citizens’ hard-earned tax money, it should be handled carefully and meticulously. The practice of completely cutting the budget without the will and effort to execute the project must end.”

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