Seoul's Civil Audit and Ombudsman Commission has confirmed violations of rules in the handling of travel expenses and in a staff hiring process linked to an overseas business trip taken by Chung Won-oh, former head of Seoul's Seongdong District, and issued seven administrative measures against the district, including an institutional warning. The commission withheld judgment, however, on allegations of preferential hiring of a staff member who accompanied the trip and of sightseeing in Cancun, citing an ongoing police investigation.
The commission said on the 21st that it had released the results of the resident-requested audit the previous day, deciding on one institutional warning, one corrective order, four recommendations and one caution against Seongdong District.
The audit found that Chung did not disclose his holdings of official air mileage on the airfare payment application, and that Seongdong District paid the airfare without verifying whether the mileage had been used first. The audit also confirmed that travel allowances were paid in a lump sum to a travel agency without the required contract documents. A trip report, which must be filed within 30 days of returning to the country, had still not been submitted by the time the audit concluded.
In the hiring of the staff member who accompanied the trip, the audit found that procedures such as verifying original copies of employment certificates and the recusal of examiners had not been properly carried out. The commission concluded, however, that these procedural lapses alone were not enough to establish that the hiring had involved preferential treatment.
The commission did not rule on whether sightseeing took place during the stay in Cancun or on the allegations of preferential hiring of the accompanying staff member, saying these matters could overlap with the police investigation. Even for the confirmed rule violations, it called for improvements to internal controls, including procedures for handling travel expenses and for verifying hiring, rather than disciplinary action against individuals.
The audit became a point of contention at the parliamentary audit of the Seoul city government on the 15th, when lawmakers of the Democratic Party of Korea raised questions about an expired filing deadline and overlapping audits. The commission has said it conducted the audit independently and in accordance with lawful procedures.