‘Post verification’ one year after execution…
Concerns about surveillance blind spots
It was revealed that the Yoon Seok-yeol government spent more than 50 billion won of reserve funds, which can be called a 'national emergency fund', on overseas trips. As a rule, it is used when it is difficult to predict, such as a natural disaster, or when it is urgent enough to not wait for budget allocation, but there is controversy over whether it is appropriate to use it for overseas trips.
Last year, the government set aside six reserve funds for diplomatic
activities.
Most of them are related to the president's overseas trips, and the
total amount is 52.3 billion won.
In August, over 30 billion won was spent to ‘support the expenses of
diplomatic activities for overseas trips’, and a total of 7.6 billion
won was earmarked for overseas tour operations in July and November as
well.
The original summit diplomacy budget was 24.9 billion won, but more
than double the reserve fund was used additionally.
[Lee Sang-min/Senior Research Fellow, Country Living Research Institute: A presidential visit is not something that is suddenly decided. Planning is made at least a year in advance, but it is unusual and not desirable to spend a lot of reserve funds related to a trip.]
In the first year of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration, 65 billion won in reserve funds was set aside for the relocation of the President's Office.
Reserve funds can be used only with the approval of the State Council without going through the National Assembly budget review process.
Therefore, the principle is that it can be used only when it is unpredictable, such as a natural disaster, or when it is urgent enough to not wait for budget allocation, but there is criticism that it is used as a 'financial supplement' to the policies promoted by the President.
Since the reserve funds taken out in this way are post-verified in the following year's financial statements, there is a high possibility that monitoring will be an after-the-fact visit.
[Woo Seok-jin/Professor of Economics, Myongji University: I don’t look very hard when settling accounts. So, the reserve fund was used as a means of escaping from the people's control.]
Some say that the check function should be strengthened, such as conducting reserve fund verification on a quarterly basis.
