Jeju Youth Culture Expense, Public Officials Know First, Controversy Over Preoccupation

Jeju Provincial Government

It was found that Jeju government officials first received the news of the project, which supported Jeju cultural welfare points of 40,000 won per youth, and preempted the benefits.

The Jeju Provincial Audit Committee said on the 19th that it demanded the provincial governor to warn the department in charge of the project and pay attention to those involved as a result of an investigation into the "Jeju Youth Cultural Welfare Point Support Project."

The project is a project in which Jeju Island provides 40,000 won per year in cultural welfare expenses per person to the first 10,000 people to provide opportunities to enjoy culture and arts to young people living in Jeju.

According to the audit committee's investigation, actual public officials were able to know information about the project in advance, and relatively more public officials applied than the general public. Two days before the announcement, officials and acquaintances who obtained prior information through documents sent by Jeju Island to the main office, direct agencies, and Eup, Myeon, Dong, etc. to cooperate in promoting the project have filed a number of applications.

Jeju Island distributed the press release to the media at 9:39 a.m. on May 22, but applications were already being made on a first-come, first-served basis at the same time as posting promotional notices on the Jeju Island website from 9 a.m. As a result, the first-come, first-served application was closed at 1:11 p.m., four hours after the application, and as a result, 1,080 out of 3,174 young civil servants, or 34.0%, took the cultural points first.

On the other hand, only 5.7% of the 155,450 ordinary young people received cultural points, and the majority of the young people did not know the contents of the announcement.

As a result, civil complaints were posted on the Jeju Island website several times to the effect of "Did you apply only for public officials?" and complaints were also made to the department in charge.

The audit committee urged people not to provide business information only to specific targets, saying, "It has resulted in a decrease in administrative fairness, transparency and reliability."

Reporter Lee Yu Na from Digital News Team.