Audit Board to Conduct Audits of Gyeonggi-do and Seongnam-si in the First Half of the Year

Annual Audit Plan for One Day Announced... Lee Jae-myung Responds to Allegations with "Difficult to Accept"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has decided to commence audits on Gyeonggi Province and Seongnam City in the first half of this year. These locations are where allegations of development corruption involving Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, have surfaced. Additionally, audits on Moon Jae-in administration policies will be conducted following last year’s review.

Choi Dal-young, Director of Planning and Coordination at the BAI, disclosed this year’s annual audit plan at the BAI on the 1st. The audit plan was approved by the Audit Committee on the 12th of last month.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The most notable aspect is the regular audits of Seongnam City and Gyeonggi Province, where Lee served as a local government head. Seongnam City will undergo a regular audit for the first time in about 13 years since its last audit in 2010. BAI staff already began preliminary investigations on-site in Gyeonggi Province on the 30th of last month.

Director Choi explained, "We cannot say that we are looking at specific cases or issues that occurred in Seongnam City and Gyeonggi Province," but added, "Regular institutional audits typically review activities from the past 3 to 5 years." When asked if the audits were targeting Lee, he responded, "This year’s audit targets include several places such as Seoul Metropolitan City, Incheon, Ulsan, Daegu Metropolitan Cities, Chungcheongbuk-do, and Gyeongsangnam-do," and countered, "We have been making efforts since last year to conduct audits within a broad framework, so it is difficult to accept claims that the audits are based solely on specific issues."

The Green Smart Future School project was also included in the audit targets for the second half of the year. This project is part of the Korean New Deal policy, a flagship policy of the Moon Jae-in administration, with a budget of 18 trillion won over five years. The BAI plans to examine whether expenditures in this large-scale fiscal project have been effectively managed.

The 'Employment Insurance Fund Financial Management Audit' is scheduled for the first half of the year. The Employment Insurance Fund has recorded deficits for four consecutive years since 2018. The BAI also plans to check whether policy funds provided by the Korea Development Bank after COVID-19 were appropriately supported. An audit on the 'Supply Management of Infectious Disease Response Medical and Quarantine Supplies,' highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis, will also be conducted this year.

Furthermore, in the education sector, one of the three major reforms of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the BAI announced plans to review the implementation status of policies aimed at strengthening university competitiveness. In the economic and financial sectors, audits will cover fair trade case investigations and appeal systems, alternative investments of major pension funds, and the operation of regulations and procedures for financial institution inspections.

Meanwhile, the BAI revealed that starting this year, it has pilot-selected 20 'high-risk priority areas' and reflected them significantly in this year’s audit plan. Under four domains?sound fiscal management, enhancement of public safety and welfare, preparation for future society and economic revitalization, and establishment of public service discipline?a total of 20 fields were designated as high-risk priority areas, forming the core of the audit plan.

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