"Sighs of Local Government Officials Over How Much to Give as Wedding Gift Money at County Head's Daughter's Wedding"

Controversy Over Wedding Announcement on Jeonnam Gurye-gun Bulletin Board
"Posted by Employee, Family Name Account"... Suspicion of Intentional Act

"I am wondering how much congratulatory money I should give for the county governor's daughter's wedding."

A wedding invitation along with the news of the county governor's child's marriage was posted on the internal bulletin board of Gurye-gun, Jeollanam-do, causing controversy.

According to CBS No Cut News on the 23rd, on the 12th, a wedding invitation file containing the date and location of the wedding of County Governor Kim Sun-ho's child was uploaded to the county's Saeol administrative system bulletin board.

Kim Sun-ho, Governor of Gurye County.
[Photo by Gurye County Open Governor's Office Capture]

According to the report, a section chief-level employee, Mr. A, conveyed the wedding news not only to county office employees but also to various parts of the local community, including the Nonghyup cooperative head, via text messages and other means. During this process, it is known that a congratulatory money account number under the family name, not Kim Sun-ho's, was also circulated.

The public officials' code of conduct prohibits notifying about congratulatory or condolence events to persons related to their duties. Previously, in Jangheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, County Governor Kim Sung caused controversy by sending out numerous wedding invitations with his own account number printed on them ahead of his eldest son's wedding.

As a result, County Governor Kim Sung was notified by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission of violating the public officials' code of conduct and reportedly apologized and returned part of the congratulatory money.

Despite such precedents, in Gurye-gun as well, 'children's wedding invitations' circulated, leading to dissatisfaction among employees. On the 21st, the day before the wedding, a post by an employee worrying about the appropriate amount of congratulatory money was posted on the bulletin board of the Gurye-gun branch of the National Public Officials Labor Union Jeonnam Regional Headquarters but was deleted after one day.

The post contained content such as, "I am worried about how much money I should give as congratulatory money. I would have just ignored it if I didn't know, but since the wedding news was shared, I feel there might be repercussions if I don't give anything."

A Gurye-gun official told No Cut News, "From the employees' perspective, they cannot help but fear retaliation from the county governor, who holds personnel authority," and criticized, "Not only the executives but even grade 9 employees were all shown the wedding invitation on the bulletin board, which raises moral issues aside from the code of conduct."

He added, "The Jangheung county governor at least sent it under his own name and apologized, but in this case, the notifier was a section chief-level employee, Mr. A, and the account number was under the family's name," raising suspicion that it seemed like they prepared for controversy in advance.

The official also lamented, "Most employees came from an hour and 30 minutes before the wedding to give congratulatory money and left early," and questioned, "Is it right to try to collect congratulatory money even from grade 9 employees whose monthly take-home pay is only about 1.5 to 1.6 million won?"

In response, Mr. A, who posted the wedding news, explained, "Regardless of rank, the department posts employees' congratulatory and condolence events on the bulletin board," and added, "The person related to the duty could be inside or outside the county office, but generally, since the county governor is also an employee under the county office, I posted it from that perspective."

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