Yoon on Subsidy Corruption: "Fraud Against Taxpayers... Reviewing Next Year's Subsidy Budget" (Update)

Deliberation on Enforcement Decree to Strengthen Verification of National Treasury Subsidies at the Cabinet Meeting
Enhancement of Management and Supervision System for Subsidy Selection and Execution Process

President Yoon Suk-yeol stated on the 13th that the corruption and illegal activities revealed in the audit results related to subsidies for private organizations and education finance grants are "fraudulent acts against taxpayers and exploitative acts against future generations."

President Yoon particularly criticized the negligence in management and supervision of the rapidly increased subsidy budget during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, and after emphasizing that "the cartel of vested interests involving fraud and corruption must be dismantled," he ordered a comprehensive review of next year's national treasury subsidy budget.

In his opening remarks at the Cabinet meeting held at the Yongsan Presidential Office that morning, President Yoon said, "Today’s Cabinet meeting will deliberate on an enforcement decree to strengthen the verification of national treasury subsidies. This is a measure to enhance transparency in subsidy management."

President Yoon pointed out, "While subsidies for private organizations increased by nearly 2 trillion won during the previous administration, there was no proper management and supervision system, leading to widespread moral hazard and leakage of public funds. This audit uncovered massive fraud and corruption, including various forms of misconduct such as embezzlement, receiving kickbacks, false claims, private use, and document forgery."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding the joint inspection of local education finance grants, he also criticized, "Large-scale illegal and improper cases were detected. Despite the increase in tax revenue due to a decline in the school-age population and a sharp rise in education grants, subsidies were excessively distributed, and no verification or management was conducted, creating fertile ground for fraud and corruption."

He directly criticized the previous Moon Jae-in administration, saying, "The people's hard-earned tax money became prey to political populism, and national debt reached 400 trillion won during the last administration alone. This is a fraudulent act against taxpayers and an exploitative act against future generations."

He added, "It is the government's duty to immediately excise and correct what is wrong. The cartel of vested interests involving fraud and corruption must be broken," urging improvements in the management and supervision system during the subsidy selection and execution process.

President Yoon particularly urged the public service, saying, "We must deeply reflect on whether subsidies have been executed routinely out of complacency."

He warned, "In the future, if fraud or misconduct occurs in subsidy projects, not only the project operators but also the responsible public officials must be held accountable. A thorough management and supervision system must be established from selection to execution and settlement."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He ordered a comprehensive review of next year’s subsidy budget. President Yoon said, "Subsidies should only be paid to organizations that honestly submit usage details and related documents, and must never be paid to organizations that use them illegally or improperly beyond their intended purpose." He urged, "Each ministry must conduct a full review of the indiscriminately increased subsidy budget and reflect this in next year’s budget."

President Yoon stated, "The government will continue to ensure that taxpayers’ money is used where it is truly needed, such as to provide stronger protection for vulnerable groups in difficulty and to improve the treatment of junior officers and non-commissioned officers who silently dedicate themselves to national security under harsh conditions and environments."

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