Controversy Over Cheongdo County Office Sending 800 Officials on Study Tour to Japan... 1 Million Won Per Person Provided

Immediate Halt of Budget Waste Urged
“Much to Learn from Agriculture and Tourism”

It has been reported that Cheongdo County in North Gyeongsang Province is sending all 800 of its employees on advanced study tours to Japan, spending a budget of 800 million won, which has sparked controversy over the pros and cons of the decision.

On the 10th, Cheongdo County stated, "We are conducting advanced study tours in which 800 civil servants are divided into groups and visit major cities in Japan for either 3 nights and 4 days or 4 nights and 5 days. This year, 400 employees are scheduled to participate, and some have already completed their tours. Another 400 will go next year, and each participant receives 1 million won in travel expenses."

Daegu Citizens Coalition for Economic Justice

After this news broke, Daegu Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (Daegu Gyeongsilryeon) issued a statement, saying, "Cheongdo County is sending all its civil servants and public employees on trips to Japan under the pretext of overseas training, giving these trips the title ‘2024 Japan Advanced Study Tour’ and providing each participant with 1 million won in travel expenses. This essentially means that the travel expenses for all Cheongdo County employees are being covered by taxpayers' money."

Daegu Gyeongsilryeon further stated, "Cheongdo County has limited the overseas training destination to Japan. The itinerary is set for 3 nights and 4 days or 4 nights and 5 days, and the resulting report only needs to be 1-2 pages long. The burden of preparing the training content and report has been greatly reduced. Going on an overseas business trip and ‘just drinking heavily for 3 nights and 4 days’ has become the norm."

"These days, Cheongdo civil servants are forming groups and traveling to Japan. Even if they give it a showy title like ‘advanced study tour,’ when asked why they are going, they simply say it’s because the county governor told them to. Some teams say they just drank for 3 nights and 4 days, others say they went for an eating trip and to visit animation prop shops, older employees go on package tours, and some say they will go in the second half of the year because they can’t make it now," one post reads.

After quoting several posts from Cheongdo County officials who had returned from the Japan tours, Daegu Gyeongsilryeon called for "the immediate suspension of the ‘2024 Japan Advanced Study Tour’ project, the public disclosure of all related documents such as business trip plans, reports, review committee materials and minutes on the Cheongdo County website, and for Gyeongbuk Province, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and other relevant agencies to immediately launch an audit."

In response, a Cheongdo County official stated, "Our employees have achieved outstanding results in competitive projects, so we planned this training to boost morale. Japan is 10 years ahead of us in fields like agriculture and tourism, so there is much to learn. In particular, we decided on this training because we believe young employees need to gain experience and insight from seeing and feeling many things abroad."

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