Excess Overtime Pay Fraud 'Covering for Their Own' Persists... Only 5% of Local Government Officials Disciplined

Criticism of 'Difficult Internal Controls' and 'Lenient Punishments' in the Civil Service Society
Recovery Amount Over 5 Years Only About 211.77 Million Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Geum Bo-ryeong] It has been revealed that the number of local government officials fraudulently receiving overtime pay has been increasing every year. While the leaking budget is a problem, only 5% of the cases have resulted in disciplinary action, leading to criticism that 'protecting one's own people' is also at a serious level. In some metropolitan local governments, there were even cases with no disciplinary actions at all.

According to the 'Status of Recovery of Fraudulent Overtime Pay by City and Province over the Past Five Years' received by the office of Kim Yong-pan, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on the 15th, 1,789 local government officials were caught fraudulently receiving overtime pay from 2018 to June of this year.

The number of detected fraudulent cases has been steadily increasing every year. After 452 cases were detected in 2018, the number dropped to 207 in 2019, but then rose to 224 in 2020 and surged to 740 last year. Up to June this year, 166 cases were confirmed.

By region, Gyeonggi-do had the highest number with 457 cases, followed by Seoul with 383, Ulsan with 216, Gyeongbuk with 194, Busan with 166, Gangwon with 86, and Chungnam with 58.

The bigger problem is that disciplinary actions are minimal. Out of the 1,789 local government officials who fraudulently received overtime pay, only 83 were punished. The punishment rate is less than 5%. In Jeonnam, 44 cases were detected last year, but there were zero disciplinary actions. Seoul and Gyeonggi also had 238 and 139 cases respectively, but only 2 people were punished in each region. The amount recovered over five years was about 211.77 million KRW.

Professor Kim Yong-chul of the Department of Public Administration at Pusan National University pointed out the 'difficult internal control' and 'light punishments' in the civil service community. Professor Kim said, "If proper verification was done from the start to catch these cases in advance and strong disciplinary actions such as one-year suspensions were imposed, it would raise awareness and prevent recurrence. But since only warnings are given each time, everyone continues to do it," adding, "Because they try to discipline their own people, proper punishment cannot be enforced."

The difference in punishment levels between local governments and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety was clear. In a special audit conducted separately by the Ministry in 2022 on 'Fraudulent Overtime Pay by Local Government Officials,' 13 cases were detected, with 8 receiving severe disciplinary actions and 4 receiving light disciplinary actions.

Assemblyman Kim said, "Ignoring and not punishing illegal acts despite confirming them is tantamount to giving up the integrity of the public service and can justifiably be criticized as 'protecting one's own people.' The fact that the severity of punishment differs depending on who punishes the same illegal act is problematic from the perspective of fairness," he said.

Kim Yong-pan, Member of the People Power Party / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

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