Parties Play Booty Sharing of National Budget again

In the National Assembly`s assessment on 112.58 trillion won of next year`s national budget, both of the ruling and opposition parties are eager to secure the civil affair budgets for the local electorates of each party`s lawmakers, while neglecting their duty to curtail the unnecessary government budget through careful review.

The parties` assessment criteria is not the welfare of the people but each party`s interests. Each party tries to cut off the budget if it is beneficial for other party and to increase it if it is good for one`s own party through negotiations. Thus, if the budget bill is passed, there would produce serious consequences.

The Grand National Party (GNP) requested the budgetary increase of 768.3 billion won for 64 civil affair business of local electorates, which were petitioned from its lawmakers, in the GNP`s `Ministries` Itemized Statement of Adjustment` which was submsitted to the Ministry of Planning and Budget. The statement was composed by the GNP`s special committee on budget and accounts on 6th, and it contains the details of the budget items that are expected to increase and curtail, the amounts, the reasons, and the names of lawmakers.

For example, the section for the Ministry of Construction and Transportation is as follows: ▲ Osong Station of the High-Speed Railway (10 billion won, Rep. Yoon, Gyung-Sik) ▲ civil oil supply facilities at Daegu Airport (3 billion won, Rep. Park, Se-Hwan) ▲ Samrak IC-Yangsan, Suksan road (20 billion won, Rep. Jung, Eui-Hwa).

And for the Korean National Railroad: ▲ removal of Daegu railroad (9.2 billion won, Rep. Park, Jong-Geun) ▲ electronic railroad between Samrangjin to Jinju (7 billion won, Rep. Kim, Yong-Gap and Yun, Han-Do) ▲ Ulsan-Gyungju-Pohang section of the South of Donghae Line (5 billion won, Rep. Kim, Man-Jae).

However, the GNP requested for a drastic budgetary reduction of the projects for the people, including the budget of the public labor works, for the reason that these projects can be misused for pork-barreling purpose by the ruling party in the situation of next year`s presidential election. These requests raised objections from the related circles of the projects.

On the other hand, the government budgetary bill to the National Assembly already reflected the budget for the civil affair business of local electorates of the New Millennium Democratic Party (NMDP) lawmakers.

For instance, 94 percent of the land purchasing project budget for foreign companies (54.8 billion won in total) are concentrated in Pyung-Deong in Gwangju or Daebul in Jeonnam. The budget for Gunsan free-trade-area development project is increased by 75 percent, from 32.7 billion won (2001) to 57.4 billion won (2002). Even the selling lot rates and operating rates of the Iksan free-trade-area, which is close to Gunsan, are low. In addition to these, many of the new highway construction places are in Honam and Metropolitan areas, such as Gochang-Jangsung, Muan-Gwangju, Mokpo-Gwangyang, Pyongtaek-Eumsung, and Yangpyong-Ganam, etc., while Youngnam area has almost no plans for new construction. It raises the issue of regional discrimination.

In-Soo Song issong@donga.com