Lee Chan-jin, head of the Financial Supervisory Service, disclosed the detailed breakdown of business promotion expenses used since taking office. This is the first time among FSS chiefs that execution details have been disclosed by item.
According to the "detailed execution of the agency head's business promotion expenses" disclosed on the Financial Supervisory Service website on the 29th, Lee spent a total of 16.68 million won in business promotion expenses over about eight months from Aug. last year, when Lee took office, to Mar. this year. The monthly average was about 2.09 million won.
During the same period, there were 76 executions, and the expenditure per case was mainly in the 100,000–300,000 won range. The per-person expenditure averaged about 20,000–30,000 won.
The purposes of the expenditures were ▲ sharing key pending issues and difficulties by institutional sector ▲ encouraging employees and hearing opinions ▲ media roundtables, and others. Most venues were restaurants and cafes around Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, where the Financial Supervisory Service headquarters is located. Condolence and congratulatory payments were executed in cash for a total of seven cases, 700,000 won.
Lee had pledged to disclose business promotion expenses during the National Policy Committee's parliamentary audit in Oct. last year. At the time, questions were raised about the transparency of executing business promotion expenses amid controversy over excessive exercise of authority surrounding former chief Lee Bok-hyun.
The controversy surrounding the former chief continues. The civic group "Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society" raised allegations that during the tenure there were false entries of headcount after using high-end restaurants and repeated late-night payments near the residence. The Financial Supervisory Service recently gave up its final appeal in the information disclosure lawsuit with the group.