The People Power Party announced plans to assess the appropriateness of the financial expansion policies of the Lee Jae-myung administration during the 2025 fiscal year settlement review. This includes verifying the details of special activity expenses and the budget related to the relocation of the presidential office.
On August 21, members of the Budget Settlement Committee from the People Power Party held a press conference at the National Assembly to outline key issues and the direction of the 2025 fiscal year settlement review. A primary focus will be on the appropriateness of the financial expansion policies, which increased the national budget from 673.3 trillion won to 703.3 trillion won through two supplementary budgets, raising national debt from 1,273.3 trillion won to 1,301.9 trillion won.
They stated, "We selected 100 key issues related to the 2025 fiscal year settlement based on the principle that 'correct settlements create correct budgets,' focusing on projects that violated the National Finance Act, such as new initiatives pursued without National Assembly approval."
Specifically, they will analyze the execution rates of supplementary budget projects to hold accountable for unnecessary deficit bond issuance due to excessive supplementary budgets. They also criticized the Democratic Party for changing its stance on the disclosure of special activity expenses, which it had previously demanded while in opposition, and for refusing to provide detailed documents regarding the budget for the presidential office relocation.
Notably, they highlighted the use of special activity funds, including 4.1 billion won for the presidential office, 6.6 billion won for the Special Prosecutor Jo Eun-seok, 9.1 billion won for the Special Prosecutor Min Jung-ki, and 5.5 billion won for the Special Prosecutor Lee Myung-hun, as well as the budget details related to the presidential office relocation. They criticized, "While in opposition, they demanded transparency and cut funding, but now that they are in power, they refuse to disclose the details." This also includes 16.2 billion won for facility improvement projects at the presidential office, 9.8 billion won for security infrastructure by the Presidential Security Service, and 4.5 billion won related to the police's return to the presidential office.
Additionally, they pointed out issues with projects in the supplementary budget, such as the Small and Medium Business Administration's fund for small businesses, which reflected 300 billion won but had no actual corporate investment, and the Ministry of Science and ICT's AI innovation fund, which had an increase of 105 billion won but resulted in 382.1 billion won in unused funds for the zero-emission vehicle supply project. They also noted that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's new technology convergence content industry support had a 210 billion won increase in the second supplementary budget but only a 9% execution rate (19 billion won), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's general national road construction project had 1.846 trillion won carried over or unused, which is 2.1 times the supplementary budget of 860 billion won. Furthermore, the Ministry of National Defense's basic support facility project had an increase of 527 billion won, with 402 billion won used for other projects and 311 billion won left unused.
They concluded, "The 2025 fiscal year settlement review is not merely a formality but a serious inquiry into the accountability of individual problem projects. At the same time, we will demand bold structural adjustments for projects that lack results or are repeatedly criticized for annual carryovers, and we will strive to ensure that the settlement results serve as the basis for next year's budget proposal."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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