By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
This year's state budget, unilaterally passed by the governing Grand National Party (GNP) on Dec. 31, is laden with the pork-barrel projects of political heavyweights, officials at the National Assembly Secretariat (NAS) said Tuesday.
Hindered by the opposition parties' boycott of budget deliberations and wrangling over the four-river restoration project, legislators failed to thoroughly review and cut out earmarks inserted into the appropriation bill. In Korea, the new fiscal year began Jan. 1.
As a result, the spending for Pohang and Ulleung Island, the constituency of President Lee Myung-bak's elder brother, Lee Sang-deuk, soared 11 billion won ($9.6 million) past the budget initially proposed by the government.
The budget for the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, chaired by President Lee's confidant Lee Jae-oh, increased by 2 billion won.
Former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye also secured an additional 3 billion won for the construction of a renewable energy demonstration complex in her constituency of Daegu.
Other GNP lawmakers, including Kim Gi-hyeon and La Kyung-won, also received extra funding for multi-million dollar projects in their electoral districts.
Multi-term lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) were even more aggressive in securing pork-barrel projects, the NAS officials said.
They claimed that DP heavyweights intentionally overlooked the GNP's railroading of the disputed state spending bill and secured additional pork-barrel expenditure instead.
In fact, the DP's resistance against the unilateral budget passage was not as strong as expected. Some senior DP lawmakers even smiled and shook hands with GNP floor leader Ahn Sang-soo and Rep. Shim Jae-chul, chairman of the Assembly Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, right after the GNP rammed the budget bill through.
Three-term lawmaker Kim Sung-gon of the DP secured an additional 30 billion won for his constituency of Yeosu in South Jeolla Province for the construction of a highway, the officials said.
Two-term lawmaker Kim Jin-pyo of the DP secured an additional 20 billion won for the construction of a subway line in his electorate of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, they added.
Two-term lawmakers Kang Gi-jung, Lee Si-jong and Park Jie-won of the DP also received an additional of 4 billion won, 2 billion won and 1 billion won, respectively, for projects in their constituencies, according to the officials.