"When Will the 'Yeo-so-ya-dae' Seodaemun District Council's Seodaemun District Supplementary Budget Deadlock End?"

Serious Concerns Over Public Hardship Due to Seodaemun District Council's Refusal to Review Supplementary Budget

Disruptions Expected in Disaster Response, Basic Pension, Veterans' Allowances, and Pregnancy Celebration Payments

Obstacles to Smooth Progress in Senior Centers' Environment Improvement, Welfare for Disabled, and Commercial Area Revitalization

Seodaemun District (Mayor Lee Seongheon) announced on the 2nd that the 2023 first supplementary budget proposal submitted to the 292nd Seodaemun District Council extraordinary session last month has been indefinitely postponed due to the council’s refusal to review it, citing an audit of the District Council Secretariat, which is expected to cause various inconveniences and difficulties for residents.

The scale of the supplementary budget is approximately 61.4 billion KRW, which includes budgets for disaster recovery, basic pensions, and child allowances.

Specifically, about 2.9 billion KRW allocated for reinforcing road facilities such as Jeungsan Bridge and Okcheon Bridge within the district cannot be executed, making it difficult to prevent risks caused by heavy rain and monsoon seasons.

If the budget of approximately 2.47 billion KRW for maintaining forest hazard facilities, tree management, defective sewage facilities, and manhole repairs cannot be used, it may cause problems in responding to crises such as landslides and floods.

▲ Basic pension budget of 3 billion KRW for about 36,000 vulnerable elderly ▲ Allowance payment budget of 160 million KRW for 3,080 veterans ▲ Additional budget of 1.6 billion KRW for senior centers’ environment improvement projects have been postponed, raising concerns about payment suspension and inconvenience for the elderly.

About 400 million KRW in pregnancy celebration payments planned for expecting families, as well as over 1 billion KRW for postpartum care expenses and childcare support, are also facing execution delays.

Additional budgets of over 1.2 billion KRW for child allowances of 100,000 KRW per month for about 13,500 children under 8 years old, operation of the Multicultural Family Support Center, support for out-of-school youth, integrated care for disabled children, and parental allowances (infant allowances) are also expected to cause resident hardships if the budget approval continues to be delayed.

Additional budgets of approximately 520 million KRW for allowances to personnel providing activity assistance services for the most severely disabled, 1.58999 billion KRW in voucher support for disabled activity support recipients, and 170 million KRW for welfare projects such as night patrol visits for severely disabled, psychological counseling support for parents of developmentally disabled, and disabled sports classes are also tied up in the council, raising concerns about harm to disabled residents.

Seodaemun District also included 190 million KRW for joint marketing of Ewha commercial area and revitalization of specialized alleys, and 250 million KRW for operating the recently popular cafe waterfall in this supplementary budget, but the council’s refusal to review makes smooth project progress uncertain.

Lee Seongheon, Mayor of Seodaemun District, said, “We urge the Seodaemun District Council to promptly review the supplementary budget for the welfare and safety of the residents.”

Seodaemun District began an audit of the District Council Secretariat in May to prevent recurrence after some council members were fined by the court in April this year for misappropriation of training expenses.

In response, council members affiliated with the Democratic Party stated that “the District Council Secretariat is not an institution under Seodaemun District Office, so it is not subject to the district office’s audit, and the supplementary budget review will be withheld until the illegal audit is withdrawn.”

It is very unusual for the review of the supplementary budget itself to be completely postponed rather than just budget cuts or adjustments.

The Seodaemun District Council consists of 15 members, with 7 from the People Power Party and 8 from the Democratic Party, creating a minority government situation.

Seodaemun District stated, “Regardless of party affiliation, we aim to identify structural problems related to the misappropriation of training expenses, clarify the responsibility of the District Council Secretariat if any, and prepare institutional improvement measures to prevent recurrence by conducting the audit based on internal audit regulations, Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s authoritative interpretations, and the Board of Audit and Inspection Act.”

They also stated, “During the previous mayor’s term, who was affiliated with the Democratic Party, the district office also audited the District Council Secretariat, and boycotting the budget review under the pretext of an audit on clearly proven wrongdoing is problematic.”

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