"Where Did the 100 Billion Won Go?"... Board of Audit and Inspection Likely to Begin Audit on 'Jamboree Disruption' This Week

It was reported on the 13th that the Board of Audit and Inspection is expected to begin an audit as early as this week to determine the responsibility for the disruption of the Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree event.

Amid expectations that a large-scale government inspection and audit will be conducted after the official conclusion of the Jamboree, the Board of Audit and Inspection is taking the lead in uncovering the truth.

Since most of the execution was carried out by Jeonbuk Province, the main local government in charge, it is presumed that the Board of Audit and Inspection, which has a large audit workforce, has taken on the audit. The Board has the authority to conduct job inspections on local government affairs and the public officials involved.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination’s Public Service Management Office and the Presidential Office’s Public Service Discipline Secretary’s Office, initially mentioned as potential inspection bodies, are reportedly not expected to immediately engage in fact-finding efforts. This is because it is difficult for their small inspection teams to review the six years of preparation since August 2017 and verify how the large-scale budget of about 100 billion won was spent.

The Board of Audit and Inspection’s audit is expected to cover all areas from the event bidding stage, site selection, related infrastructure construction, the operation status of the organizing committee, to the execution details of the massive budget. It is anticipated that they will examine the reasons why 87 billion won, accounting for 74% of the total budget, was allocated to the organizing committee’s operating and project expenses, and why only 13 billion won was spent on facility costs such as restrooms, showers, and water supply stations.

Jeonbuk Province’s use of the Jamboree bid as a means to promote large-scale SOC (social overhead capital) projects and secure budgets is also expected to be a main subject of the audit. Additionally, indications of poor management and supervision by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will also be scrutinized.

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