Audit shows Gyeonggi Province’s poor oversight of subsidies while opposition leader was governor

SEOUL, The state audit agency said Wednesday the government of Gyeonggi Province poorly supervised private companies receiving its subsidies, mostly during the time when opposition leader Lee Jae-myung served as governor. Announcing the results of a regular audit, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said the provincial government failed to conduct proper oversight of subsidies given to companies for inter-Korean cooperation projects and local voucher businesses. The result comes as Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, has been standing trial over various corruption charges from his time as the Seongnam mayor and then as the governor of Gyeonggi Province from 2018 to 2021. But the BAI said the audit, spanning from 2018 to 2022, is standard procedure, as the last audit on the provincial government was conducted in 2017. According to the findings, the provincial government provided 1.29 billion won (US$963,000) in subsidies to a private organization chosen as a partner for a project to provide assistance to North Korea in 2020. But the audit revealed the organization illegally used 580 million won of the money for other purposes, including 430 million won for personal use. The audit outcome also indicates the provincial government favored a private enterprise managing Gyeonggi Provincial local vouchers, which arbitrarily used an advance payment worth 10 billion won provided by the provincial government. The BAI said the provincial government was aware of the irregularities since 2020 but failed to take any legal action. Source: Yonhap News Agency