Ministry of Economy and Finance Drastically Cuts Budget for Corruption Investigation Office... Kim Nam-guk Calls It "Yoon Administration's Blatant Attempt to Kill the Corruption Investigation Office"

Budget Cuts for Electronic Evidence Preservation Management System and Others

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] There are concerns that the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit (Gongsucheo), established under the Moon Jae-in administration, is facing difficulties in carrying out basic projects due to a significant budget cut under the current government.

According to the office of Representative Kim Nam-guk, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has allocated 130 million KRW for next year’s budget to build an electronic evidence preservation management system for Gongsucheo, which is an 86.5% reduction from the originally requested amount.

The electronic evidence preservation management system is a software system designed to upload criminal litigation records and various pieces of evidence into an electronic system and transfer records during investigations or trials. It is currently being developed in preparation for the digitization of criminal litigation procedures in 2024.

According to a Gongsucheo official, it will be difficult to complete the electronic evidence system by the January 2024 deadline mandated by the Electronic Documents in Criminal Procedures Act. In that case, Gongsucheo will have to transport criminal records by cargo trucks or large carts at every stage of case processing, such as trials or transfers.

In addition, Gongsucheo’s budget was cut in areas including basic system facility construction costs (629 million KRW), development costs (140 million KRW), and project supervision fees (100 million KRW).

Representative Kim said, "This is the blatant reality of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration’s coordinated effort to kill Gongsucheo," adding, "We will investigate the facts in the National Assembly and correct this."

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