SUWON — Gyeonggi Province said on the 14th that the purchase of Governor Choo Mi-ae's official car "had already been finalized during the tenure of former Governor Kim Dong-yeon," responding to controversy over the acquisition.
Hong Eun-gwang, spokesman for Gyeonggi Province, said in a written briefing that morning that "the purchase of the governor's official car was not a new acquisition of an expensive vehicle pushed by the current governor amid fiscal strain."
Choo faced questions about the purchase of a high-priced official car a day earlier, during a parliamentary audit of Gyeonggi Province by the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee. She responded that the purchase had already been finalized under her predecessor.
According to the province, officials signed off on a plan for the disposal and purchase of public vehicles on June 11 this year, before Choo took office. The plan called for retiring four vehicles in use as public cars and buying the same number of replacements.
The vehicles marked for disposal were those registered 10 or more years earlier or driven at least 120,000 kilometers. Also included were cars that had exceeded the eight-year service life for passenger vehicles set out in Public Procurement Service guidelines.
The province said the newly purchased vehicles are low-emission, environmentally friendly electric cars. They are exempt from alternate-day driving restrictions and cost less to operate than the vehicles they replaced, the province said.
The money came from the budget for four public vehicles included in the 2026 main budget. The province carried out administrative procedures from June 11 to 17 and signed the purchase contract on June 29. It took delivery of the vehicles on July 8 and put them into service, officials said.
Hong said the governor's answers during the parliamentary audit were "facts based on official records." He added that he hoped "no further unnecessary debate follows on this matter."