[2022 National Audit] "Sojinkong's Small Business Support Projects, Waste of Public Funds Due to Poor Management"

Kim Seong-hwan, member of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Concerns have been raised that some of the small business support projects promoted by the Small Enterprise and Market Service have deteriorated into profit-making tools for certain entrusted institutions, resulting in serious waste of public funds.

On the 24th, Kim Seong-hwan, a member of the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Venture Business Committee from the Democratic Party, criticized, "Support projects into which about 24.3 billion KRW of government subsidies are invested seem likely to waste public funds rather than achieving the purpose of helping small business owners adapt to the market and develop their businesses, so urgent improvements are needed."

According to Rep. Kim, the Small Enterprise and Market Service’s small business support projects are being poorly managed overall, including the quality of lecture content and the composition of instructors. He pointed out, "Support that does not reflect an understanding of on-site difficulties is being provided," and added, "Looking at the instructors of the Digital Specialized University project, which is composed of university professors, it is questionable how much the lectures will help solve small business owners’ difficulties." Among the 30 instructors in the Digital Specialized University, 25 are from academia, and only 5 are from industry. With 83% of the instructors coming from academia, there is concern that on-site challenges may not be reflected in the educational content.

Rep. Kim also mentioned cases where instructors with unrelated backgrounds conduct classes. For example, a professor from the Department of Companion Animal Science conducts meal kit production practice, and a professor from the Department of Fine Arts teaches e-commerce theory classes. He stated, "Because the composition of instructors and class plans are fully delegated and there is no follow-up management, such issues occur," and emphasized, "Entrusted education does not mean that the responsibility for managing the project can also be delegated." He stressed that the Small Enterprise and Market Service’s education support policy should focus on providing appropriate education tailored to small business owners’ needs rather than merely supporting tuition fees.

Criticism was also raised regarding the specialized technical education and dedicated training center projects beyond the online specialized university project. Rep. Kim said, "The situation is even more serious in the small business management education project," and added, "Subsidies are being paid for lectures completely unrelated to the project’s purpose." The small business management education project, consisting of specialized technical education, dedicated training centers, and management improvement education, is intended to support education for adapting to market changes due to management environments and digital transformation. Rep. Kim stated, "Personal color diagnosis to find the skin tone’s best matching color, soap making, and rattan basket making have been disguised as small business management education," and criticized, "Despite being a budget-funded project, the Small Enterprise and Market Service permits course openings without a special screening process, resulting in education that is far from the intended purpose proliferating indiscriminately."

Rep. Kim Seong-hwan further stated, "Overall, the management of the appropriateness of educational content and the suitability of instructor composition is not being conducted, greatly reducing the project’s effectiveness," and criticized, "The Small Enterprise and Market Service is merely increasing the number of projects to show off without serious consideration of small business owners’ difficulties and demands."

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