National Assembly Criticized for Unnecessary Extravagance

The National Assembly is being criticized for its extravagance in using a considerable amount of the budget for the 17th opening of the National Assembly in unnecessary areas.

According to the “Specification for 2004 revenues, expenditures, and budget” of the National Assembly obtained solely by Dong-A Ilbo on Monday, the amount used in preparation for the opening the National Assembly reached a total of 1.586 billion won.

Of that amount, a total of 1.3 billion won had been appropriated as equipment costs, 705 million won for the painting and wallpapering of 299 rooms of National Assembly members’ offices, 400 million won for replacing a carpet, and other similar outlays.

Moreover, 120 million won of equipment costs had been apportioned for wallpapering, painting, floor construction, and carpet replacement of the National Assembly public hall.

The total cost used for the 17th opening of the National Assembly rose as much as 325.42 million won (25.9 percent) compared to the previous opening. The increase in equipment cost, including painting, wallpapering, carpet replacement and other costs, reached as much as 280.26 million won (27.5 percent).

A representative aide K pointed out that “although there was no need to re-paint and wallpaper, the construction work is always held every 4 years no matter what,” and added that “anybody would consider the construction in all National Assembly members’ offices a waste of budget money.”

Regarding this issue, the National Assembly administration explained that “it’s been decided that it is best to have painting and wallpapering construction work done every four years at the time of the opening. The carpets were replaced for the first time in 15 years this year.”

Professor Kim Ki-jung of Yonsei University (Political Science) indicated, “Since the National Assembly organizes the budget by themselves, they have to be more cautious on the moral hazard issue than any other organization.”

Myoung-Gun Lee Min-Hyuk Park gun43@donga.com mhpark@donga.com