By Kang Seung-woo
Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn vowed on Tuesday to strengthen monitoring of big state projects worth 240 trillion won in an effort to preemptively root out corruption.
Hwang’s office said the government has instigated a “corruption vaccination” program to monitor budget spending for the preparations for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and other mega state projects.
The Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 9 to 25, 2018, will receive 5.3 trillion won in subsidies from the government.
“Given that a temporarily formed organization will handle the large amount of state funds in a short period of time, irregularities could occur,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
As part of the government’s efforts to prevent corruption, the minister’s office said that it will set up a double monitoring system.
According to the initiative, relevant ministries ― the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Safety and Security ― will closely review the organization committee’s budget execution, business promotions and other work beforehand and the Office for Government Policy Coordination’s management team dealing with national projects will double check the result from the initial monitoring.
Also, the government will send three officials from the Board of Audit and Inspection to the committee.
In response to the announcement, Gangwon Province where PyeongChang county is located said that it is already monitoring businesses related to the winter games.
Along with the Olympics, the creation of a science business belt in Daejeon, in which the government will spend 5.9 trillion won, is also subject to the government’s monitoring.
“So far, the handling of corruption has been focused on reactive measures and punishments,” Prime Minister Hwang said in a press conference held at the government complex in Seoul.
“But with this kind of approach, it is hard to fundamentally recover the national and social damage incurred by corruption.”
The prime minister also said that the government will expand and reorganize the risk management department for the nation’s postal service, which manages some 105 trillion won of state funds.