SUWON — Gyeonggi Province on the 19th rejected claims that it slashed spending on replacing fire trucks, saying the assertions "distort the facts."
Hong Eun-kwang, spokesperson for the province, said in a written briefing that afternoon that the province had moved to strengthen firefighting equipment by allocating additional funds from its own budget to buy fire trucks, even as state grants were reduced.
According to Hong, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety set this year's fire safety grant, which is funded by the central government, at 35.2 billion won. That is 5.7 billion won less than the 40.9 billion won the province had initially expected.
As a result, the province faced having to cut 4.88 billion won from its budget for purchasing fire trucks. Acting on a request from the Gyeonggi Province Fire and Disaster Headquarters, however, it included 2.23 billion won of provincial funds in its second supplementary budget.
That brought the final reduction down to 2.65 billion won. The fire and disaster headquarters used the provincial funds to buy two aerial platform trucks and three on-scene command vehicles. It also plans to purchase 14 more vehicles, including water tankers, bringing the total to 19 fire vehicles.
"Some are claiming that Gyeonggi Province cut 2.65 billion won from its fire truck purchase budget and that this is enough money to buy 25 fire trucks," Hong said. "That is a distorted claim that ignores the reduction in state funding and the process of allocating provincial funds."
"Even under difficult fiscal conditions, Gyeonggi Province has worked to protect residents' safety by committing its own budget," he said. "Please do not use this as a tool for political conflict."
He added that the province "will continue to strengthen the expansion of and support for firefighting equipment to bolster firefighters' on-scene response capabilities."