Time, affiliation, etc. are ‘masked’
Opposition party “requests additional verification”
Special activity expenses likely to be reduced due to lack of data
The Ministry of Justice recently submitted to the National Assembly some of the prosecution’s specific business expenses (special expenses). The National Assembly plans to review this and reexamine whether to cut the budget. However, the details of special activity expenses (special activity expenses) appear highly likely to be reduced as the prosecution maintains the position that it is difficult to submit supporting materials at the level required by the National Assembly.
According to Kyunghyang Shinmun coverage on the 17th, the Ministry of Justice recently submitted some details of prosecution special security expenses to the National Assembly. The prosecution’s business expenses are largely divided into three categories: special security expenses, business promotion expenses (uptime expenses), and special activity expenses. A significant portion of special security expenses can be used as credit cards to provide proof of usage, but the difference is that special activity expenses have a wide scope of exemption from proof under the pretext of being ‘used for confidential investigations.’
The details submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the National Assembly are proof of special prosecution expenses for August of last year. It is a compilation of one month’s usage details from six major prosecutors’ offices, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. In this record, the date, location, and amount of special security expenses were disclosed, but the time the expenses were used, the parties’ affiliations, and the contents of the remarks column were said to have been obscured and submitted.
The Ministry of Justice and the prosecution have revealed that they have submitted supporting materials to the National Assembly within the scope recognized by the court as ‘the scope of disclosure of business expenses.’ However, the Democratic Party of Korea is maintaining its position that many of the details that the Ministry of Justice has obscured must be disclosed in order to verify the accurate budget. It is impossible to verify whether the budget has been used properly if the details are obscured. An official from the Democratic Party lawmaker’s office said, “When looking at the details of special police expenses submitted by the Ministry of Justice, some parts are different from the monthly allowance paid to prosecutors and investigators.” “I requested it,” he said.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice’s details of special security and business expenses for the past year and domestic travel expenses for the past three years have been submitted to the National Assembly. In the case of the prosecution, it is said that they are internally discussing submitting details for other months following the details of special police expenses for August of last year.
However, the possibility of submitting data regarding the prosecution’s use of special activity expenses is still remote. Previously, the Ministry of Justice submitted to the National Assembly a copy of the six-month special activity expenses used by the Prosecutor General from July to December 2021 and a copy of the supporting materials. However, it is said that the recipients and the purpose of using the special activity funds were obscured. The opposition party is demanding that a significant portion of the budget details be disclosed and submitted to verify special activity expenses, but is unable to narrow differences of opinion with the prosecution.
As the Democratic Party has emphasized a policy of reducing all business expenses that do not include documentary evidence, it is highly likely that the prosecution’s 8 billion won in special activity expenses for next year will be completely reduced if additional special activity expenses are not submitted.
The National Assembly plans to re-discuss whether to make cuts based on the details submitted in the review by the Budget Coordination Subcommittee of the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee starting on the 18th.
