Yejeongcheo "Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, Jamboree Budget Inefficiency... 4.7 Billion Won Subsidy Remaining"

"Urgent Supplementary Budget Increase Should Have Been Prepared in Advance"
18.1 Billion Won Increase Compared to Original Budget, 15.2 Billion Won in Reserve Funds
73% of Organizing Committee Subsidy Executed, 4.7 Billion Won Remaining
"With Typhoon Forecast, Actual Execution Likelihood Is Low"

The National Assembly Budget Office (NABO) pointed out that the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MOGEF) executed the budget inefficiently in relation to last year's World Jamboree event project. It was noted that there was a failure to prepare in advance for disasters and emergencies, leading to a sudden large-scale allocation of contingency funds during the event's operation. Additionally, subsidies granted to the Jamboree Organizing Committee (Organizing Committee) were not fully utilized, resulting in a balance of 4.7 billion KRW.

According to NABO on the 19th, in the '2023 Fiscal Year Settlement Committee Analysis - Gender Equality and Family Committee' published the previous day, MOGEF was analyzed as having "inadequate management of subsidy projects and event preparation related to the 25th World Scout Jamboree, resulting in large-scale budget reallocations and contingency fund allocations."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Furthermore, it added, "There has been a continuous call for thorough preparation against natural disasters such as heatwaves and typhoons. Despite the need for MOGEF to allocate related budgets from the outset for prior preparation, budget increases through reallocations and contingency funds were made hastily only after the situation occurred."

The budget executed for the World Jamboree support project in the 2023 fiscal year amounted to approximately 27.611 billion KRW. The originally allocated main budget was 9.513 billion KRW, but during preparation and operation, an additional 18.135 billion KRW (190.6%) was added compared to the main budget. Of this, 2.958 billion KRW was reallocated from other projects, and the contingency fund allocated was about 15.177 billion KRW.

NABO criticized MOGEF for granting the entire budget to the Organizing Committee, which had a low likelihood of budget execution due to the typhoon occurrence, resulting in the retention of surplus funds. Only 13.259 billion KRW, which is 73.1% of the granted subsidy (18.098 billion KRW), was actually spent. Consequently, it was analyzed that a total balance of 4.756 billion KRW and 147 million KRW in settlement interest occurred for the subsidies granted to the Organizing Committee last year.

MOGEF increased the budget by 7.817 billion KRW from contingency funds on August 4th last year and paid the entire amount as a subsidy to the Organizing Committee on August 7th. However, on the same day, a forecast was already issued that Typhoon Khanun would pass through the Korean Peninsula, and it was announced that Jamboree participants would be evacuated to eight cities and provinces. NABO stated, "They were aware that additional supplies might become unnecessary due to the emergency evacuation," and added, "It would have been possible to pay only part of the subsidy and decide on the disbursement of the remaining budget after monitoring the situation, thereby treating the unused funds as non-expenditure."

NABO pointed out the poor actual execution performance of the World Jamboree project. In particular, the local government capital subsidy budget allocated for infrastructure installation and campsite development experienced delays in project implementation, with execution rates of ▲2020 (0%) ▲2021 (7.9%) ▲2022 (42.1%), showing poor annual execution performance. In fact, the Saemangeum area, the event venue, took about four years (2018?2022) just for land reclamation, and basic construction began only one year before the event.

Additionally, the contingency fund requests included expenses related to simple event operations such as additional provision of meals and snacks, shower drainage maintenance, and purchase of cleaning tools, indicating insufficient prior event operation preparation. Contingency funds are an exceptional system that should be used within minimal limits, but budgets that should have been allocated in advance were instead used as contingency funds.

NABO evaluated, "Regarding the operation of last year's World Jamboree event, there were multiple issues raised related to poor management, lack of prior preparation such as infrastructure development, and inappropriate budget execution," and added, "A thorough post-evaluation and verification of the project seem necessary." In this regard, an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the overall World Jamboree is underway, and the Jamboree Organizing Committee plans to publish a white paper covering the overall aspects of the World Jamboree in August. The Ministry of Economy and Finance also intends to conduct verification of the post-evaluation report within this year.

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