Details of special activity expenses not submitted
The Ministry of Justice submitted to the National Assembly a portion of the details of the prosecution’s specific business expenses (special security expenses).
According to the legal community on the 17th, it was confirmed that the Ministry of Justice submitted some details of the use of special security funds by six offices, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly.
The special security expenses submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the Legislative and Judiciary Committee were reported to have been used in August of last year, and the date, location, and amount of special security expenses were disclosed. However, it is reported that the time spent on special security funds, the parties involved, and their affiliations were kept confidential.
Special security expenses are expenses that require recording a portion of the expenses and submitting a receipt, and are distinguished from ‘special activity expenses’, which are specified to be used only for investigations that require confidentiality. In particular, there is no difficulty in proving the details of special activity expenses since a significant portion of them are spent with credit cards, but in the case of special activity expenses, it is difficult to prove the details because most of them are spent in cash.
So far, the Ministry of Justice has stated that it can submit data on the use of special security expenses. At the Judiciary Committee meeting on the 8th, the Ministry of Justice submitted data related to special security expenses to the National Assembly on the morning of the same day.
At the time, Chairman Jeong Cheong-rae expressed his position that the special police budget, which was cut in full (50.691 billion won), could be discussed again, saying, “The prosecution hurriedly brought me some data this morning.”
However, there are still differences of opinion between the National Assembly and the prosecution regarding special activity expenses. While the National Assembly is in the position that ‘budget cannot be allocated without verification,’ the prosecution is opposing it, saying, ‘If the details of use are disclosed, it will interfere with investigations that require confidentiality.’
On the 7th, the Budget and Settlement Fund Review Subcommittee of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee completely reduced the prosecution’s special activity expenses of 8.09 billion won and special police expenses of 50.691 billion won, and decided on this at the full meeting of the Legislative and Judiciary Committee the next day (8th). Currently, next year’s budget for the Legislative and Judiciary Committee is being discussed at the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee.
Prosecutors’ special activity expenses increased from KRW 17.9 billion in 2017 to KRW 14.2 billion (2018) → KRW 11.6 billion (2019) → KRW 9.4 billion (2020) → KRW 8.4 billion (2021) → KRW 8 billion (2022) → KRW 8 billion (2023). →It is continuously decreasing to 7.2 billion (2024).
(Seoul = Newsis)
Source: www.donga.com
