[기고] To increase the effect of ‘opening the hometown donation system to private platforms’

The hometown love donation fundraising performance is poor. The amount raised in the first half of the hometown donation fund, now in its second year of operation, decreased by 14.3% compared to the same period last year, and the number of donations also decreased by 4.6%. Last year’s total fundraising amount (approximately KRW 65 billion) accounted for 29.5% of the fundraising amount in the first half of the year, and by applying this simple calculation, the total fundraising performance this year is predicted to be KRW 55.81 billion. If the fundraising trend in the first half of the year continues, the amount raised is expected to decrease by about 9.2 billion won compared to last year, even considering the tendency for donations to be concentrated at the end of the year.

Last February, the National Assembly revised the ‘Hometown Love Donation Act’ by establishing a new basis for designated donations, easing promotional regulations, and expanding the annual donation limit per person from 5 million won to 20 million won, thereby establishing a path to improve the system to encourage donations. opened.

However, it appears that the effect of the law amendment has not yet been seen. This is because the opening of important private platforms is still difficult. Due to the outdated service environment of the current information system ‘Hometown Love eum’, which is operated by the Korea Local Information Development Institute, it is difficult to provide high-quality digital experiences to satisfy everyday donors.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security decided to promote the opening of private platforms by opening digital services in July. Dong-gu in Gwangju Metropolitan City and Yeongam-gun in South Jeolla Province raised hometown donations through private platforms last year, but eventually had to stop due to continued pressure from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to ‘prevent confusion in the early stages of implementation of the system.’ The use of a private platform, which was able to gain momentum in the early stages of the system’s implementation, was delayed for two years due to the insistence of the responsible ministry.

Not only was the timing missed, but the direction the Ministry of Public Administration and Security is pursuing to open private platforms is also worrisome. The Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s position is to center on the public platform ‘Hometown Love Eum’ and to exchange various information and make payments through private platforms and application program interfaces (APIs).

However, ‘Hometown Love Eum’ is so unstable that the service has been interrupted for 2,252 minutes due to problems, etc. Moreover, ‘Hometown Love e-um’ is operated in conjunction with more than 10 administrative information systems, including the next-generation non-tax revenue system, street name address, and Wi-Tax, so there is a high concern that it will lead to a chain of errors like the administrative computer network failure in November last year.

Hometown tax payment in Japan provides unique services depending on the private platform. On the other hand, it is unclear whether our hometown donation system will allow the government to expand its services by taking advantage of the characteristics of each participating company when it opens a private platform, or whether it will simply limit itself to utilizing the ‘hometown love sound’ on other platforms. If we are not careful, we may end up just activating the ‘hometown love sound’ rather than activating the hometown donation system.

In order for the opening of private platforms to be more effective, the Regional Information Development Institute, which operates ‘Hometown Love Eum’, needs to put aside its vested interests and rigid attitude, respect the creativity of participating companies, and proactively cooperate in the process of opening digital services. . Only then can local governments also be guaranteed a minimum level of autonomy and choice.

Local governments are in a state of extreme austerity due to the government’s reduction of local allocation taxes. The hometown donation system is a system in which local governments raise funds, conduct business, and solve local problems, with autonomy at its core. In order to develop the system, the autonomy of local governments must be recognized more broadly. The same goes for private platform issues. We hope that the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the Regional Information Development Institute will actively cooperate so that the improvement of the hometown donation system is not delayed any further.

Yong Hye-in, Representative of the Basic Income Party