It has been confirmed that Buan-gun, North Jeolla Province, has granted subsidies of nearly 500 million won to bicycle and taekwondo organizations in the county under the pretext of the ‘2023 Saemangeum 25th World Scout Jamboree’. Only the subsidy paid individually to each sports organization far exceeds the Jamboree Organizing Committee’s purchase cost for heat wave response items (200 million won). It is pointed out that it is necessary to examine whether the subsidy was implemented carelessly.
According to related ministries on the 15th, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do Province, provided a total of 220 million won in local subsidies to the Buan-gun Bicycle Federation from 2019 to this year. The Buan-gun Bicycle Federation is an organization composed of three bicycle clubs in Buan. The subsidies were put into the ‘Buan Saemangeum Jamboree Mediofondo’, a bicycle competition hosted by the federation. The slogan of the event is ‘Pray for a successful Saemangeum Jamboree’. Buan-gun provided subsidies of 50 to 60 million
won for each event to the Buan-gun Bicycle Federation for business expenses . For the ‘4th Buan Saemangeum Jamboree Mediopondo’ scheduled to be held메이저사이트 this year, the subsidy provided to the federation at the beginning of this month alone is 60 million won. Jeonbuk Province provided 10 million won, and the remaining 50 million won was paid from the budget of Buan County. The problem is that it is difficult to find a direct connection between the bicycle competition and the Jamboree. In particular, the 4th tournament to be held this year will be held in the middle of next month. An event to pray for the success of the Jamboree will be held one month after the closing of the Jamboree. Even the federation gives competition participants 50,000 to 6 per person every year.
I received a participation fee of 10,000 won. Considering that the federation recruited 1,200 participants for the 4th tournament to be held this year on a first-come, first-served basis, the profit from the participation fee (60,000 won per person) in this tournament alone amounts to 72 million won.
Buan-gun also paid 253 million won in subsidy from 2018 to this year to the Buan-gun Taekwondo Association in the name of the Jamboree. The reason is that it supports the ‘National Taekwondo Contest for the Saemangeum Jamboree Success’ hosted by the association. The competition was also an event that collected participation fees, but a subsidy of 80 million won was provided only for the fourth competition held in May this year. Jeonbuk Province and Buan County paid 30 million won and 50 million won, respectively.
Questions are also raised about the appropriateness of subsidy execution. The subsidy received individually by the Buan bicycle and taekwondo groups is more than the Jamboree Organizing Committee’s cost of purchasing goods (200 million won) in preparation for the heat wave. It is pointed out that it is not appropriate that local subsidies of close to 500 million won were invested in bicycle and taekwondo competitions in hopes of a successful Jamboree as there were patients with fever one after another at the Jamboree due to the heat wave.
Even the subsidy given by Buan County is highly likely to come from the central government’s resources. In fact, based on this year’s budget, the financial independence of Buan-gun is only 8.8%. This is one-fifth of the national average of local governments (45.02%). The financial independence of Jeonbuk-do, which paid part of the subsidy paid to bicycle and taekwondo groups, also stood at only 24.62%.
Meanwhile, Buan-gun plans to hold bicycle and taekwondo competitions next year. The Buan-gun side said, “(From next year) we will remove ‘Jamboree’ from the name of the event.”