Audit Results of the Democracy Movement Memorial Association Demand Dismissal of Two Executives

Announcement of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety Audit Results

The government announced audit results stating that the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association "neglected the selection and management of event-hosting organizations in cooperative projects with private organizations, causing controversies over distortion and bias in the purpose of commemorative ceremonies at national events such as the June 10th Uprising commemoration." It also pointed out that approximately 260 million KRW was improperly supported redundantly.

On the 5th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced the audit results regarding the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association containing these details. The Ministry stated, that from July 3 to 14, it conducted an audit on the overall execution status of government subsidies by the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association.

According to the audit results, although the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association should play a role in realizing the values aimed by the Constitution and inheriting the spirit of the democracy movement, it was pointed out that it neglected the selection and management of event-hosting organizations in cooperative projects with private organizations, causing controversies over distortion and bias in the purpose of commemorative ceremonies at national events such as the June 10th Uprising commemoration.

Furthermore, the democracy research reports and various data collections directly published by the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association, which should be described from a balanced perspective as publications of a public institution, contained radical and biased content, deviating from the purpose and objectives of the association’s projects. It was also revealed that the association officially selected and awarded recipients of the 2022 Korea Democracy Award who were involved in socially controversial movements such as the enactment campaign of the so-called ‘Yellow Envelope Act’ and the campaign to prevent the abolition of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Additionally, upon inspecting the budget execution status of cooperative projects supported by the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association to private organizations, it was found that from 2020 to this year, 14 organizations received subsidies (totaling 2.4 billion KRW) from local governments for identical or similar projects such as the June 10th Uprising commemoration projects. Despite this, the association improperly provided overlapping support amounting to 260 million KRW over 50 instances.

Moreover, the audit pointed out serious mismanagement of government subsidies by the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association, as it supported event expenses for disqualified private organizations, failed to detect accounting fraud such as some organizations receiving funds by falsifying supporting documents, and showed overall poor management of government subsidies.

Regarding other areas such as organizational and personnel management, contracts, and budget execution, it was confirmed that the association hired new personnel differently from government-approved content, operated the organization arbitrarily without reflecting it in the organizational chart, improperly managed personnel by processing personal activities of dual-position holders as business trips during working hours, violated the principle of open competition by arbitrarily signing private contracts with specific organizations, and executed budgets without board resolutions or Ministry of the Interior and Safety approval, all of which were deemed inappropriate.

Based on the audit results, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety instructed the department supervising the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association to completely review and restructure the association’s government subsidy projects, strictly discipline (dismiss) the executive directors responsible for management, and prepare measures to operate the association in accordance with its original purpose.

In addition, the Ministry disciplined (six personnel) those responsible for poor subsidy management that wasted budgets and improperly operated organization and personnel beyond the approved scope, and ordered the association to prepare measures such as recovering funds and restricting project participation for accounting fraud including improper receipt of support funds and submission of false supporting documents. It also issued warnings or cautions to prevent recurrence of cases such as negligence in duty management and improper private contracts.

Furthermore, the Ministry plans to notify the relevant local governments about private organizations that received duplicate subsidies or improperly received subsidies by submitting false supporting documents from both the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association and local governments, and requests that local audit departments thoroughly audit the execution status of local subsidies and impose strong sanctions according to the Local Subsidy Act and related laws.

Ko Gi-dong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated, “Based on this audit result, we will strengthen guidance and supervision so that the Democracy Movement Commemoration Association fulfills its responsibilities as a public institution and faithfully carries out its original task of commemorating the democracy movement.” He added, “We will continue to thoroughly manage all places supported by taxpayers’ money without exception to ensure that government subsidies and budgets are not wasted.”

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