Gyeonggi Province and Suwon City..'Crabs favor crabs'

Gyeonggi Province has come under criticism for imposing what critics call a slap-on-the-wrist punishment by handing down a "one-month salary cut" decision to three officials responsible for the improper disbursement of 33.3 billion won in overtime pay to Suwon City.

On the 21st, the province convened a personnel committee and deliberated on Suwon City's improper overtime pay disbursement case, imposing one-month salary cuts on three key officials at the time.

Among them, Director A had his disciplinary action reduced to a reprimand, one level below the salary cut, after his presidential commendation award was taken into consideration.

In response, Jeong Heung-jae, director of the Autonomous Administration Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, held a press conference on the 23rd and said, "Suwon City requested minor disciplinary action, and we imposed the strongest disciplinary measure among the options," adding that "it was an unprecedented courageous measure identified through the province's own audit."

The province stated that while it is not institutionally impossible for the personnel committee to impose disciplinary action stronger than what front-line cities and counties request, it decided on disciplinary measures in line with what Suwon City requested as a matter of practice.

However, there is widespread public opinion questioning whether Gyeonggi Province's decision to impose minor disciplinary action based on Suwon City's opinion—despite identifying illegal receipt of hundreds of billions of won in overtime pay through its own audit—amounts to nothing more than granting immunity to 'one's own people.'

The province also stated, "Going forward, we will boldly break away from leniency toward public officials who become targets of internal criticism," effectively admitting that past disciplinary actions were lenient.

Gyeonggi Province ranked last in the nation in the integrity evaluation of metropolitan autonomous regions conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Commission last year and even drew up special countermeasures to improve integrity. However, critics have now questioned whether this is merely an 'empty slogan.'

In response, an official from the "Joint Committee for Recovery of Suwon City's Overtime Pay," a civic organization, stated, "The punishment was imposed in a mutually accommodating manner among fellow public officials, as the saying goes—the arm bends inward," and added, "If the measures are deemed insufficient, we are considering going beyond resident audits to pursue criminal charges or resident recall elections."

Previously, in January, Suwon City was found to have improperly received 33.34 billion won in overtime pay over the past five years by having one to two people from each department uniformly register overtime hours in proxy.