People Power Party's Song Eon-seok: "Saemangeum Jamboree Misused as a Means to Secure Regional SOC Budget"

214 Times the Budget of 'Goseong Jamboree'

According to the "17th World Jamboree Comprehensive Plan" obtained on the 14th by Song Eon-seok, a member of the People Power Party from Gimcheon, at the National Assembly Library, it was confirmed that the direct and indirect project costs for the 1991 Gangwon-do Goseong Jamboree amounted to 18.8 billion KRW.

Considering the difference in currency value due to inflation, this is estimated to be about 51.3 billion KRW in current terms. Compared to the 11 trillion KRW spent on the Saemangeum Jamboree, including SOC, this was conducted at about 1/214th of the cost.

Song Eon-seok, member of the People Power Party

In particular, it was confirmed that the indirect project costs for SOC in the Goseong Jamboree budget were only 2.62 billion KRW. Specifically, 1.95 billion KRW was spent on paving the access road to the Jamboree site, and 670 million KRW was invested in maintaining the marine activity area.

On the other hand, the Saemangeum Jamboree invested nearly 11 trillion KRW in SOC budgets, including the Saemangeum International Airport (807.7 billion KRW), which was exempted from preliminary feasibility studies, the Saemangeum-Jeonju expressway (1.92 trillion KRW) still under construction, the internal east-west and north-south roads (788.6 billion KRW) built to improve convenience for Jamboree participants, and the Saemangeum New Port (3.2 trillion KRW).

Even when comparing direct project costs, there was more than a twofold difference. The Goseong Jamboree had 16.2 billion KRW in direct project costs, which translates to 44.2 billion KRW in current value. Compared to the 117.1 billion KRW direct project costs invested in the Saemangeum Jamboree, this amount is less than 40%.

Unlike Saemangeum, which was criticized for a large proportion of operating costs such as labor costs in the project budget, the Goseong Jamboree budget was mainly used for campsite development. The Goseong Jamboree spent nearly half of its direct project costs, 8.1 billion KRW, on campsite development, whereas Saemangeum used only about one-third of its 117.1 billion KRW, or 39.5 billion KRW, for campsite development.

The cost for pest control during the Jamboree, which was problematic due to poor response at the Saemangeum Jamboree, was only 500 million KRW, but it was confirmed that the Goseong Jamboree spent 414 million KRW at the time in 1991. This amount corresponds to 1.13 billion KRW in current value.

Song Eon-seok, a member of the People Power Party, said, "It appears that Jeollabuk-do, the local political circles, and the Moon Jae-in administration exploited the Jamboree as a tool to secure regional SOC budgets." He added, "In this National Assembly settlement audit, we will thoroughly examine whether any budget was wasted under the pretext of the Jamboree, whether any interest cartels were involved, and the entire process from the promotion to execution of related projects."

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