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Employees of public institutions continue to use public vehicles for business inappropriately for personal purposes. Kangwon Land executives were caught using public cars even on weekends and vacations, and the company paid for gas and tolls.
Correspondent Han Sang-woo.
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Executive A, who commutes from Jeongseon, Gangwon to Gangwon Land on weekdays, drove a company car on Friday to his home in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do.
I used the public car for personal use all weekend, and I rode it during the holidays and vacations.
From September 2018 to June this year, Mr. A used a public car privately, and the company also charged 2 million won for gas and highway tolls.
Not only Mr. A, but other Kangwon Land executives also used public cars as if they were private cars for commuting from Gayang-dong, Seoul to Gangwon Land, and used them freely on holidays.
Public institution regulations state that public vehicles cannot be used for personal use without justifiable reasons, but they have been ignored.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy recovered 5 million won, including gas and toll fees, from three Kangwon Land executives who had privately used public cars for a year and a half, and issued an institutional warning to Kangwon Land.
[Kwon Myung-ho/People's Power Rep. (National Assembly Industrial Self-Defense Forces): It is necessary to investigate whether there are more public companies and public institutions that still cannot fix this misconception that it is okay to use an official car privately because it is customary.]
Kangwon Land acknowledged the mistake, but said that it was not significantly different from the customary level of using public vehicles.
An investigation into public institutions is needed to see if there are more cases of waste of tax that cannot be distinguished from construction in the name of custom.
(Video editing: Hongmyeong Lee)