Gov't criticized for plan to relocate finance ministry to new building

An illustration of a new building in Sejong Government Complex Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

A group of unionized public servants based in Sejong, an administrative city south of Seoul, is calling for the scrapping of plans by the interior ministry to spend over 10 billion won ($7.6 million) to relocate the finance ministry to a new building that is located within a 10-minute walk away, according to officials, Wednesday. The finance ministry is currently housed in building 4 of the Sejong Government Complex.

The construction of the new building in the Complex was approved in 2020 with the aim of housing other ministries, excluding the finance ministry. But the plan frustrates other ministries that have been housed in rented commercial buildings for the past few years waiting for construction to finish.

This is why the unionized workers say that moving the finance ministry to the new building has no merit and serves no purpose, other than to show the most powerful and the most influential group of policymakers in the nation that they can have their demands met.

Further weakening the case for the relocation is the interior ministry's move to speed up the approval plan, citing “long-term cost-benefit considerations and administrative efficiency as well as the number of requests received.”

Leaders of the unionized workers of the oceans, labor, land, science and SMEs ministries said they planned to visit the Prime Minister's Office in Sejong, late Wednesday, to protest the interior ministry's decision.

“The finance ministry was among the first to have relocated to Sejong from Seoul in 2012, two years before the construction of Sejong Government Complex was complete,” said Ji Young-suk, one of the workers.

The interior ministry said in June 2020 that the new building would give officials of the said ministries a stable workplace, reiterating that stance last July in the ministry's announcement that “the construction will help a number of ministries with a lack of physical infrastructure to work.”

“How can other ministry officials understand the finance ministry getting its way just because it can? Will the public agree on spending 10 billion won just for the ministry to move to a new place? The plan should be revisited,” Ji said.

A ministry official said that the plan is not only unreasonable but inconsiderate of other ministries that have been waiting for years to move out of their rented buildings.

“It is hard not to take it personally,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “I think this will affect the overall morale of many that continue to feel left out.”