Embezzlement Spree

Local Authorities Should Step Up Supervision

Not a penny of taxpayers' money should be wasted because it is earned from the blood, sweat and tears of the people. But now we have to find out if the money is properly used for the public good. What would happen if tax collectors or officials in charge of budget spending pocket the money? South Koreans cannot help but cast a suspicious eye on the state or local authorities which have often been found to have wasted or embezzled taxpayers' money.

The latest case of embezzlement was detected in a district office in Seoul. A low-level official in Yangcheon-gu had allegedly pocketed 2.6 billion won ($1.7 million) of the municipal budget set aside for the disabled from May 2005 through August 2008. The amount accounted for 43 percent of total benefits for the disabled, estimated at 6 billion won during the period.

It is shocking news that the 38-year-old civil servant, identified as Ahn, had behaved as if he were nouveau riche. He went on a spending spree by stealing money from the city's coffers, buying a posh Mercedes Benz and a luxury apartment, boasting of his extravagance. In an attempt to cover up his criminal act, he even lied to his colleagues and neighbors that his wife had won the lottery. How could the official continue to pocket such a huge sum of money for over three years?

A loose system of paying benefits to the disabled is responsible for Ahn's embezzlement, not to mention his lack of discipline and moral standards. He easily took 70 to 90 million won each month on 72 occasions by inflating the number of recipients and the total amount of benefit payments. The district office dismissed Ahn last week and reported his case to police, but it's too late to undo the embezzlement.

It's truly regrettable that the city government has failed to properly supervise the payments of disabled benefits. The city only received a report of the total payments ― without details of the list of recipients or their individual sums. Even Ahn's supervisors did not have access to such detailed information.

In conclusion, neglect on the part of the supervisors and the loose payment system resulted in the embezzlement. In the southeastern port city of Busan, a public worker was found last November to have pocketed 92 million won of subsidies to low-income earners over 13 months. The Busan municipal government conducted an investigation and found that two other officials had also misappropriated welfare-related subsidies.

It is urgent to establish a tighter system to prevent public servants from embezzling taxpayers' money. It is also necessary for the state and local authorities to enforce a stricter code of ethics among civil servants while stepping up efforts to crackdown on violators. The government's total budget for welfare-related subsidies is estimated at 74.7 trillion won this year. This huge sum should not be up for grabs for greedy and corrupt public servants.