[2022 National Audit] Baehyun Jin: "Gyeonggi-do Illegally Received 10.5 Billion KRW for Managing Inaccessible Cultural Assets"

235 Cultural Properties That Are Unmanageable or Unnecessary Have Been Removed from Management
221 of These, Accounting for 94% of the Cancellations, Are Concentrated in Gyeonggi-do

Baek Hyun-jin, Member of the People Power Party / Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Boryeong] On the 11th, Bae Hyunjin, a member of the People Power Party, pointed out that Gyeonggi-do applied for a budget claiming to manage cultural assets in areas where access is restricted due to military facilities, and falsely received 10.5 billion KRW over five years.

According to the "Comprehensive Survey of Cultural Assets Subject to Care Projects" submitted by the Cultural Heritage Administration to Bae, a member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, an investigation conducted last month on 9,047 non-designated cultural assets for which local governments requested management budget allocation found that 235 cultural assets were canceled from the management list because they were either impossible or unnecessary to manage.

Among the canceled cultural assets, 221, accounting for 94%, were concentrated in Gyeonggi-do. It was revealed that 214 of these were located within military units that are difficult for civilians to access. Bae pointed out that Gyeonggi-do applied en masse for cultural assets within military units that are practically inaccessible and received the budget without actually implementing the projects. Bae said, "Gyeonggi-do collectively applied for non-designated cultural assets within military units that the officials could not even access, and spent the budget for five years without a single management activity. The Cultural Heritage Administration, which failed to filter out such cases and has been providing national funds for years, is nothing more than an incompetent cash dispenser."

During the Cultural Heritage Administration’s audit held that day, Bae criticized the cultural asset care project as "a national tax leakage project used as an achievement of Moon Jae-in’s job creation policy" and asked the head of the Cultural Heritage Administration for an official stance on adjusting the project.

In response, Choi Eungcheon, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration, agreed that there were problems with the previous government’s cultural asset care project method and said, "From now on, we will adjust the budget allocation criteria focusing on the number of cultural assets managed rather than the number of participants and supervise accordingly."

Bae emphasized that the period from 2018 to last year was when Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, was governor of Gyeonggi-do. He said, "Regarding the approximately 220 cases in Gyeonggi-do during Lee’s tenure as governor, I hope a thorough investigation is conducted to verify how the executed budget was used and that appropriate legal measures are taken if any issues are found."

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