Budget Review Often 'On Hold'... Moving to Closed-Door Sessions

Major Budget of Yoon Administration, Ministry of Justice Personnel Information Management Unit Budget Massively Withheld
High Possibility of Discussion in Subcommittee Without 'Transcript'
"Regression Compared to the Past," Experts Point Out
Budget Committee Members Also Voice "Undesirable Practice"

[Asia Economy Reporters Lee Ji-eun, Kwon Hyun-ji] "When we try to review the budget for the Blue House opening by separating each item, no consensus is reached. It seems more efficient to put all agenda related to the Blue House opening on hold and review the remaining items." (Lee Cheol-gyu, People Power Party Budget and Accounts Committee Spokesperson)

"Agreed." (All members)

"We need to basically reach some agreement and set a direction on how to handle the space called the Blue House (between the ruling and opposition parties)." (Woo Won-shik, Budget and Accounts Committee Chairperson)

On the 18th, at the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee’s Budget Adjustment Subcommittee (Budget Subcommittee) site, while reviewing the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism budget, the subcommittee members unanimously agreed with the voice of Lee, the ruling party spokesperson. Chairperson Woo also sympathized. This is one of the scenes that clearly shows the current reality of budget review in the National Assembly.

As of the 24th, the ‘on hold’ budget, which has not been finalized for cuts or maintenance in the Budget Subcommittee that has reviewed half of the total standing committee budgets, is growing. Especially, due to unresolved differences between the ruling and opposition parties over the first budget of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, many reviews of major projects such as the Blue House relocation, the Police Bureau, and Small Modular Reactors (SMR), as well as politically sensitive project budgets, are on hold. These budget negotiations are likely to move to small subcommittees where no official records are kept, raising concerns about secretive reviews.

According to Asia Economy’s survey of projects reviewed up to the previous day, projects related to key national agendas of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration are consecutively on hold, including ‘personnel expenses (394 million KRW) and basic expenses (209 million KRW) for the establishment of the Police Bureau,’ ‘support for the operation of the Digital Platform Government Committee (7.395 billion KRW),’ ‘operation of the National Integration Committee (11.764 billion KRW),’ ‘expansion of information security infrastructure (37.548 billion KRW),’ ‘Digital Platform Government National Experience Leading Project (10.35 billion KRW),’ and ‘i-SMR (Small Modular Reactor) development (3.11 billion KRW).’ The budget for the Ministry of Justice’s Personnel Information Management Unit (3.76 billion KRW), which has been politically controversial, has also not been finalized.

The Blue House development project due to the Yongsan relocation has been entirely put on hold. Representative examples include the Blue House art exhibition operation project (4.8 billion KRW) and the operation of the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History (13.15 billion KRW). The opposition party raised their voices saying, "We don’t go to the Blue House just to see artworks," while the ruling party countered, "It’s not the first time there has been art exhibitions inside the Blue House," citing the previous administration’s exhibition history, leading to confrontation.

As the number of on-hold projects grows, there is a forecast that the unofficial consultative body called the ‘small subcommittee’ will inevitably be activated again this year. The small subcommittee includes leaders from both ruling and opposition parties and the Budget and Accounts Committee spokespersons, but it is not an official body defined by law and does not keep official records. Because of this, criticism of opaque reviews continues. However, with about a week left until the review deadline and supplementary budget reviews not yet started, the scale of on-hold budgets is expected to increase further.

Lee Sang-min, Senior Research Fellow at the National Fiscal Research Institute, said, "It is natural to put items on hold during the review process, but the principle should be to have a second discussion on the on-hold projects, and if still unresolved, a third discussion. However, it stops at the first discussion and moves to the unofficial consultative channel, the small subcommittee. It only looks like they are telling the spokespersons to discuss sensitive issues among themselves." He added, "In the past, it was said that the subcommittee was disrupted, but recently they officially say they will have discussions among spokespersons. This is actually a regression compared to the past."

Budget and Accounts Committee members acknowledge this harsh criticism but say it is ‘inevitable.’ A ruling party budget committee member who requested anonymity admitted that when asked if there is ‘political compromise’ in the small subcommittee, "It is an undesirable practice and wrong," but lamented, "If both sides understand and agree to some extent, they should reach an agreement and move forward, but that is not happening."

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