Kim Mi-yeon, Incheon Seo-gu Council Member: “There are many places that have never undergone specific audits for four years in the blind spot of subsidy institutions”

Concerns have been raised that some external institutions receiving subsidies from Incheon Seo-gu have been in a blind spot for audits for several years.

Kim Mi-yeon, a member of the Incheon Seo-gu Council (People Power Party, Gajung 1-3, Shin-hyeon Wonchang-dong), focused on the effectiveness and equity issues of specific audits for subsidy-supported institutions during the report on the audit office's work at the 278th temporary session held on the 3rd.

Kim stated, “There are places that have never undergone a specific audit for four years among the institutions operating with subsidies,” and strongly criticised, “We need to create a list to systematically manage so that every institution is audited at least once every four years.”

Currently, the Seo-gu audit office conducts specific audits approximately every three years, focusing on larger institutions, but due to manpower and physical limitations, it cannot examine all institutions. In response, Kim insisted, “There must be an awareness that audits can happen at any time to ensure operational transparency,” and called for the elimination of blind spots in audit targets.

In particular, Kim mentioned long-standing unresolved issues related to the Nokcheongja Museum and urged the audit office to take proactive action. Kim emphasised, “Despite issues being raised in past audits, there are still unresolved matters, and if problems persist, negative perceptions of the institution may become entrenched, so they must be corrected swiftly.”

When a district official responded, “The relevant department conducts regular checks every year,” Kim directly refuted this. Kim stated, “The self-checks by the overarching department may be overlooked due to the close relationship, and since it is qualitatively different from specific audits conducted by an independent audit department, any place receiving subsidies should be included in the audit list without exception.”

The district official replied, “As the council member pointed out, we will reorganise the list of institutions subject to specific audits and manage it thoroughly to prevent blind spots.”