Gwangju City’s ‘Y-Project’ Hasty... Most Budget ‘Cut’

Gwangju City Councilor Lee Gwisoon: "Pursuit of Overambitious Campaign Projects"

Lee Gwisun, Gwangju City Council member.

Concerns have been raised about the low execution rate of projects carried out across departments, including the ‘Y-Project’ promoted by the Gwangju City New Vitality Promotion Headquarters.

On the 18th, Lee Gwi-soon, a member of the Gwangju City Council (Democratic Party, Gwangsan 4), during the review of the 2nd supplementary budget for Gwangju City, criticized, “The principle is to use the budget within the year, and if it was not used, it is evidence that the original budget plan was poorly made,” adding, “During last year’s main budget review, other departments had important projects shelved or cut by more than 30% due to financial difficulties.”

Looking at the budget execution rate of Gwangju City, the budget amount for 15 projects over 100 million won conducted by the New Vitality Promotion Headquarters is 11.546 billion won, with an execution rate of only 11.9%, which is very low. The reasons for non-execution were identified as administrative procedure delays, incomplete design competitions, and the non-arrival of completion deadlines.

Councilor Lee pointed out, “Looking at the materials submitted for the supplementary budget, most of the national funds are returned due to difficulties in matching city funds,” and “There are too many project funds carried over because budgets were recklessly allocated to quickly advance mayoral pledge projects.”

In response, Lee Seung-gyu, head of the Gwangju City New Vitality Promotion Headquarters, explained, “To proceed with the projects, it was necessary to secure project funds,” and added, “While we acknowledge that the Y-Bridge project was not thoroughly reviewed, the other projects have been initiated and are underway.”

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