Recovery of 73.9 Billion KRW in Fraudulent Benefits in the Second Half of Last Year... "Increasing Rewards for Whistleblowers"

In the second half of last year, public institutions recovered 73.9 billion KRW in improperly received subsidies and imposed 9 billion KRW in penalty surcharges.

On the 23rd, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) announced in a briefing that 308 public institutions at various levels recovered 73.9 billion KRW in improperly received subsidies and imposed 9 billion KRW in penalty surcharges in the second half of last year. The total amount recovered and penalty surcharges for the entire last year reached 133.6 billion KRW, a 27% increase compared to the previous year (105.6 billion KRW).

The central administrative agencies recovered the largest amount at 49.4 billion KRW, followed by basic local governments with 23.2 billion KRW, metropolitan local governments with 1.2 billion KRW, and education offices with 60 million KRW. Regarding penalty surcharges, central administrative agencies imposed 8.3 billion KRW, basic local governments 600 million KRW, metropolitan local governments 100 million KRW, and education offices 20 million KRW, in that order.

Among the central administrative agencies, the Ministry of Employment and Labor recovered 36.6 billion KRW. Among basic local governments, Namwon-si in Jeonbuk recovered 1.2 billion KRW; among metropolitan local governments, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province recovered 470 million KRW; and among education offices, Ulsan Education Office recovered 20 million KRW.

Examples of improper receipt include cases where existing workers were falsely represented as newly hired to receive support funds. Additionally, false claims were made by charging for social services not provided, excessive labor costs claimed through false recording of working hours, and misuse of subsidy balances by creating ledgers and using funds for purposes other than intended.

Based on this inspection, the ACRC also identified cases where legally mandated penalty surcharges were not imposed. The commission recommended compliance to the relevant institutions during the third quarter of last year and plans to actively improve vulnerable and frequently occurring areas in cooperation with related agencies.

Furthermore, to encourage reporting of improper receipt, the reward amount for whistleblowers will be increased from the existing 200 million KRW to 500 million KRW. The commission also plans to expand rewards for reports made to agencies other than the ACRC. The performance of recovery and penalty surcharge dispositions by institutions at all levels will be reflected in the ‘Integrity Effort’ category of the comprehensive public institution integrity evaluation, and information such as public finance status by institution and project, amounts and rates of improper receipt, and disposition status by subsidy will be disclosed on the Integrity Portal.

Jeong Seung-yoon, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the ACRC, stated, "We will thoroughly monitor and manage government support funds to ensure they reach the citizens who truly need them," adding, "We will actively promote the eradication of improper receipt through strengthened publicity and expanded reward payments in cooperation with institutions at all levels."

Since January 1, 2020, under the 'Public Finance Recovery Act,' the ACRC has been recovering improperly claimed public finance payments such as subsidies. Additionally, penalty surcharges of up to five times the amount of the improper benefit are also imposed.

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