Incheon TP Buys Luxury Goods and Smartphones with Office Supplies Budget... Incheon City Council Calls It "Moral Hazard"

Employees of Incheon Technopark (Incheon TP), an institution funded by Incheon City, were caught in an audit for purchasing personal items using the budget.

According to the Incheon City Council on the 16th, the Incheon TP Audit Office recently conducted an internal audit and took disciplinary actions against nine employees who misappropriated the budget: one received a severe disciplinary action, six received minor disciplinary actions, and two were given warnings. Additionally, 23.34 million KRW of improperly spent office supplies expenses were recovered. However, items worth approximately 6.32 million KRW, for which the recipient could not be identified, have not yet been recovered.

The audit revealed that the Incheon TP Fab Aviation Industry Center used about 20 million KRW from the office supplies budget allocated from last year to this year to purchase personal items for employees, and spent over 29 million KRW on inappropriate items unrelated to office work.

The Industrial Economy Committee of the Incheon City Council is conducting an administrative audit of Incheon TP on the 15th.
[Photo by Incheon City Council]

The employees in question created three separate ledgers at a specific office supplies vendor and frequently purchased items, with investigations revealing that transaction statements and product inspection photos were falsified.

Furthermore, items not sold by the office supplies vendor were ordered through a purchasing agency, during which a commission amounting to 25% of the item’s sale price was paid to the vendor. The total number of inappropriate items purchased via the purchasing agency was 134 cases, amounting to approximately 20.82 million KRW.

Among the items purchased through these fraudulent activities were luxury smartphones and tablets, wireless earphones, designer bags, sunglasses and scarves, perfumes, and nutritional supplements. On the 15th, the Industrial Economy Committee of the Incheon City Council criticized the moral laxity of employees who misused project funds like petty cash during the administrative audit of Incheon TP and ordered measures to prevent recurrence.

City Council member Moon Se-jong (Gyeyang-gu District 4) emphasized, "Clear understanding of the situation by superiors, along with additional recovery measures and strict disciplinary actions, are necessary." Council member Na Sang-gil (Bupyeong-gu District 4) also pointed out, "Recovering the stolen money does not absolve the crime," and added, "Measures must be established to prevent such shameful incidents from happening again."

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