'National Merit Donors' Corporations Contribute 20 Billion Won While Individuals Give 1.1 Million Won

Only 3 Cases of 'Individual Donations' to Veterans in 6 Years
Kang Min-guk: "Fostering a Culture of Veterans Affairs... Developing Incentives"

A diagnosis has emerged that the system for donating to national merit recipients is not being activated easily. Over the past six years, companies have donated nearly 20 billion won, but individual donations to merit recipients amounted to only around 1 million won, which is about 0.005%. It is also pointed out that there is a lack of incentive systems that could actively lead a culture of veterans affairs and donations.

According to the 'National Merit Donation Status' data submitted by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to Kang Min-guk, a member of the People Power Party, on the 10th, donations to national merit recipients totaled 64 cases and 19.921 billion won over about six years from 2017 to last month. By donor type, corporate donations accounted for most with 61 cases (95.3%). Individual donations were only 3 cases (4.7%), with a total amount of just 1.1 million won.

By year, the donations were 8 cases (2.292 billion won) in 2017, 5 cases (2.298 billion won) in 2018, 6 cases (2.396 billion won) in 2019, 8 cases (2.791 billion won) in 2020, 10 cases (2.963 billion won) in 2021, 11 cases (3.441 billion won) in 2022, and 16 cases (3.721 billion won) up to July this year. The trend shows a slight increase every year, with a noticeable rise in donation amounts last year and this year. However, during this period, individual donations were only 2 cases totaling 100,000 won in 2017 and 1 case of 1 million won last year, with none in other years. This means all donations came from corporations.

Even within 'corporate donations,' a concentration phenomenon appears. The top donors by amount are ▲Housing Construction Association with 7 cases (7.13 billion won) ▲Yuhan Foundation with 7 cases (3.51 billion won) ▲Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation with 7 cases (3.25 billion won) ▲Jaseng Medical Foundation with 7 cases (980 million won) ▲Shinhan Card with 6 cases (883 million won). These five companies contributed 15.753 billion won (79.2%) out of the total 19.921 billion won donated.

Under current law, when individuals or companies express their intention to donate, the donation amount is collected into the veterans fund national treasury account. There is also a method of donating by directly recommending recipients to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs without sending money to the veterans fund.

Kang Min-guk, Member of the People Power Party [Image source=Yonhap News]

Assemblyman Kang pointed out that the reason for the low social donations to national merit recipients is the lack of incentives at the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs to encourage donations to national merit recipients. In fact, currently, the ministry only issues donation receipts without any separate incentives when donations are made to merit recipients. Furthermore, the ministry does not conduct any budget-supported promotions related to donations for merit recipients.

Kang said, "Although the Republic of Korea exists because of the dedication and sacrifice of national merit recipients, the fact that the average annual donation record is less than nine cases shows the lack of policy support from the responsible ministry, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs," adding, "To foster a culture of veterans affairs through everyday donations, a separate project budget should be allocated to actively promote donations to merit recipients, and the development of incentives to encourage corporate participation is also necessary."

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