National Assembly Requires Special Audit on the Budget of KBS and KMH Project

The National Assembly required a special audit on the government’s budget execution to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) for the first time ever since adopting the constitutional government.

The National Assembly held a plenary session on November 10 and passed an audit request form over the five government enterprises, which pointed out several mistakes during deliberations on the liquidation form: the South-North cooperation works, the memorial organization for democratization movement, the budget of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), the construction project of nuclear waste treatment plant in Seongapdo, Incheon, and the project of the Ministry of National Defense (MND), Korean Multipurpose Helicopter (KMH).

According to the revised National Assembly Law, Clause 2, Art. 127, the BAI has to submit the result of the audit to the National Assembly within three months.

Especially, the result of the audit is quite noteworthy because the present Roh Moo-hyun government’s projects, not the projects of the former government, are included in the targets of the inspection, such as the memorial organization for democratization movement.

The South-North cooperation works, among the targets of the inspection, is indicated as extending a favor, because Hyundai-Asan, whose capacity is not enough as the goods-material supplier of the North Korean Kyungyi-railroad section, was selected.

The memorial organization for democratization movement has raised questions in connection with the issue of inviting Song Du-yul and the suspicion of the reckless budget execution. The construction project of a nuclear waste treatment plant in Seongapdo, Incheon is the target of criticism because the project was propelled without a full investigation and as a result, it squandered the national treasury’s money.

With the exception of these scandals, the KBS raised an issue of supplying reserve funds to staff and officials as bonus every year, and the KMH project propelling it without the benefits analysis comparing expenses.

But the BAI is concerned that it cannot dispel suspicions thoroughly because of the limitation of the inspection methods.

In case of the South-North cooperation works, it is impossible to examine the private cooperation, Hyundai-Asan. And the auditing on the national treasury subsidy of the memorial organization for democratization movement is possible, but the issue of inviting Song Du-yul is impossible to inspect because the prosecution is investigating the issue.

A BAI official said, “The National Assembly’s audit request will be esteemed, but it is difficult to inspect all the government enterprises thoroughly within three months with the BAI’s present system and manpower.”

Ho-Won Choi bestiger@donga.com