Ex-aides to Park Geun-hye receives prison term

From left, Ahn Bong-geun, Lee Jae-man and Jeong Ho-seong. The Seoul Central District Court convicted the three key aides to former President Park Geun-hye of negligence in managing state coffer, Thursday. Yonhap

Voices growing for abolishing 'special activity funds'

By Lee Kyung-min

A district court convicted three key aides to former President Park Geun-hye of negligence in managing state coffers, Thursday, in the latest in a slew of corruption trials that followed her removal from office. They were cleared, however, of involvement in bribery in delivering “special activity funds” from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to Park.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Ahn Bong-geun to 30 months in prison and fined him 27 million won ($25,000); Lee Jae-man to 18 months in prison; and Jeong Ho-seong, 10 months in prison suspended for two years. The three were indicted last November for playing a key role in delivering a combined 3.6 billion won from three former NIS chiefs to Park between May 2013 and September 2016.

The verdict was similar to that of three former NIS chiefs _ Lee Byeong-ho, Nam Jae-joon and Lee Byung-kee _ last month who were acquitted of bribery but convicted of negligence in managing state coffers. Of the three, Lee Byeong-ho and Lee Byung-kee were sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison, while Nam received three years. They were indicted for delivering the agency's special funds to Park through the three aides.

Thursday's ruling came amid increasing calls to abolish “special activity funds,” the expenditure accountability of which has largely remained at the discretion of the spender. The funds are granted to government bodies and public figures for activities that require “confidentiality,” and the spenders do not have to write a report or submit receipts to specify what they spent it on, allowing “wasteful use” of taxpayers' money.

The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a liberal civic group launched an online petition to abolish the funds, criticizing the National Assembly for its “irresponsible and negligent” stance toward them. “Public outrage is growing as no one has ever been held accountable for the spending of hard-earned taxpayers' money,” the group said. “The current lukewarm stance will change only through the vocal opposition evidenced by people's signatures.” The petition will remain online until next Friday when it will be submitted to the National Assembly.

The move was sparked by a special activity funds expenditure report between 2011 and 2013, released last week following a disclosure request by the group. The report showed that the National Assembly spent 24 billion won ($21 million) over the three years. A National Assembly negotiation body leader was given 60 million won per month, and standing committee chairpersons and special committee heads received 6 million won per month. The expenditure was not limited to official activities, but extended to personal expenses including living expenses, overseas or domestic trip expenses, paying for friendly get-togethers, condolences and congratulatory money. The group demanded a Board of Audit and Inspection audit be launched for further expenditure details. The group is awaiting a response from the National Assembly Secretariat on an earlier request for an expenditure report from eight ministries.

Meanwhile, rival parties said plans to come up with measures to improve transparency concerning the funds. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the main opposition Liberty Korea Party and minor conservative opposition Bareunmirae Party all said they will undertake efforts toward improving the transparency of the funds, while only a liberal opposition Justice Party said it would seek to abolish the funds altogether.