※'Finish' is an abbreviation of SBS's Data Journalism Team, [Surprise] and stands for a long and long comprehensive article. Rather than browsing and reading individual articles one by one, we've prepared it for readers who want to read it at once, even if it's rather long. It also contains the meaning of ending the series. 

In March 1991, the local elections, which had been suspended since the May 16 military crisis, were revived in 31 years. 4,304 basic lawmakers were elected from municipalities across the country. And another 30 years passed. 2,927 members of the 226 Basic Councils elected in the 2018 elections are in the process. The 8th local council has now ended in the first half and entered the second year in the second half. What was the past two years of the Fundamentals Council's return point?

The SBS Data Journalism Team [Mabujajak] decided to settle the first half of the local council based on some data. First, the presidency of the Basic Assembly analyzed 190,000 cases of business promotion expenses used in the past two years. I tried to see if it was written properly according to the purpose. It was to make sure that the citizen's tax was not being used indiscriminately.
○ 13 million won spent at the'Councilor's Restaurant'

● The president of the'Grand Meeting Restaurant' is a fellow member of


the 8th Gangbuk-gu Council, which was launched in July 2018. In the first half of the year, the five chairmanships spent 184 million won for about two years until May. Chairman Baek-gyun Lee 78.2 million won (730 cases), Vice Chairman In-ae Yoo 39.82 million won (669 cases), Heo Kwang-haeng Chairman of the Welfare Construction Committee KRW 24.26 million (216 cases), Seung-mok Seo, 22.29 million won (268 cases), Executive Chairman Chi-Hyo Choi Silver spent 21.4 million won (266 cases). The main usage details were'conference with related organizations or organizations' and'work cooperation or consultation', and most of them were used in restaurants.
Where was the restaurant the chairman visited the most? It was'Hometown Sancheon', a restaurant that mainly sells duck meat. I visited 59 times in two years and paid 132.3 million won. It was 7.1% of the total amount of work promotion expenses used. The next place I visited was Jiwoojeong, which mainly sells galbitang, visited 39 times and spent 6.45 million won. The chairman and the chairman spent more than twice as much as the second-ranking restaurant in the cost of working in the first restaurant.

Why did I go to this restaurant so much? It is possible that it was one of the best restaurants in Gangbuk-gu or a space suitable for social gatherings. Or, the restaurant president and the chairman may have had a special relationship. Unfortunately, the president of the No. 1 restaurant was Rep. Gwang-haeng Heo and a member of the chairmanship as Chairman of the Welfare Construction Committee in the first half. Of the business promotion expenses set exclusively for the chairman, about 13 million won was spent the most in a restaurant where the chairman of the chairman was the president.

Even in the No. 1 restaurant, Chairman Lee Baek-gyun spent the most at 5.76 million won (23 cases). Next was Chairman Seo Seung-mok 5.41 million won (27 cases), followed by Chairman Chi-hyo Choi 2.62 million won (9 cases). Chairman Huh Kwang-haeng and Vice-Chairman Yoo In-ae had no use history (four out of the five chairpersons belonged to the same party in the first half, and only vice-chairman Yoo In-ae was different from the party.)

When asked why the restaurant spent a lot of money for work promotion, Rep. Lee Baek-gyun said, I used it because it tasted okay." When I asked again if that was the only reason, he said, "Because our legislator is the representative there, I think there was such a tendency." Rep. Lee added, "I didn't know if other chairpersons used it," he added. "Because it's a house I know, it seems like I've only used it a lot."

Rep. Heo Gwang-haeng replied, "Because the store is on the roadside, the location is good, cheap, and delicious, so many residents come," he said. "Isn't it possible that the chairman and the chairman didn't tell me and didn't know and told me not to come." Rep. Heo emphasized, "If I did business, it could be a moral problem, but it wasn't," he said. "I haven't even paid for a business promotion in my store."

In some cases, it was used in a restaurant with family members or friends. During the first half of the Daejeon Jung-gu Council, the chairman and vice chairman spent 1.57 million won (9 cases) in the local'Shinnara Pocha', which is run by the wife of Rep. Kim Yeon-soo, who was the vice chairman of the first half. Rep. Kim became the chairman in the second half of the year.) The chairman and the chairman also spent 9.42 million won (66 cases) in'Byeolmijeong' in Daejeon, and the president of the restaurant is an acquaintance of Rep. Kim Ok-hyang, chairman of the budget and settlement special committee for the first half. . Rep. Kim said, "The restaurant president had a mother's meeting together and made friends, and I just introduced it to the chairman because he was doing a restaurant."

● What is the nation's top'goat' in terms of the amount used for business promotion?

Where is the'favorite' restaurant of the chairmen of 226 basic councils nationwide? The correct answer is'restaurant'. It is not known whether it was insolvent or intentional omission, but the highest amount used was 90.45 million won (464 cases) at the place where only the place of use was marked as'restaurant'. All of them were used by the chairman of the Jeonbuk Gochang-gun Council, so it is believed that they were Gochang restaurants.
The chairman's'Choi Ae' restaurant whose substance was confirmed was'Cham Hanwoo Bonga' in Nowon-gu, Seoul. The chairman of the Nowon-gu council visited the restaurant 123 times over two years and spent 33.2 million won. The details were all roundtables. In the first half of the year, Rep. Lee Gyeong-cheol, the chairman, spent about 64 cases, 17.8 million won. Next, the single restaurant with a large amount of business promotion expenses was'Dongbok Hanwoo' in Hwasun-gun, Jeonnam, also a Korean beef meat restaurant, with 19.81 million won (96 cases), followed by'Jangsu Hanwoo Plaza' in Jangsu-gun, Jeonbuk with 19.91 million won (79 cases). Was. Korean beef restaurants topped the list.

These restaurants are generally well-known restaurants in the area. What is the relationship with the chairman? Like the restaurants mentioned above, it was not possible to confirm whether a lawmaker or relative was associated with the restaurant. Rep. Lee Gyeong-cheol said, "It wasn't because I was driving it, but because it was my local restaurant, my regular restaurant, and I liked meat, I would have used it a lot," he said. "It looks like a lot in two years, but on a monthly basis, I went two or three times a month." If you calculate the 17.88 million won for the business promotion spent at the restaurant as explained by this lawmaker, it means that you visited two or three times a month and spent an average of 280,000 won at a time.

● Request for public benefit audit for business promotion costs… What is the auditor's judgment?

When asked if the business promotion was spent at a specific restaurant, the lawmakers responded, "I have not exceeded the legal limit", "It is not illegal", and "I went a lot because it was a regular restaurant or a restaurant." As they answered. There are no regulations preventing the concentrating of spending on a specific company. There is no problem if you use it in your own restaurant or in the restaurant of a fellow lawmaker. The auditor also did not take a problem.

In May 2018, the'Information Disclosure Center for a Transparent Society' pointed out problems such as obtaining and analyzing the details of the use of work promotion expenses for the chairpersons of 25 basic councils in the Seoul area, and using it for private purposes or at the family cafeteria. Subsequently, in August of that year, a public interest audit was requested to the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the audit result was announced in March 2019. The Board of Audit and Inspection requested that the chairman of the Yongsan-gu council at that time collect 870,000 won, saying that the purchase of drugs for personal treatment as business promotion expenses was a different execution than the purpose. However, the chairman and the chairman and council members spend business promotion expenses at restaurants such as fellow lawmakers or family members, use on holidays or late nights,'break away' less than 500,000 won, and domestic payments during overseas training, etc. Currently, there are no restrictions and are executed for the purpose of legislative activities. It seemed that there was no problem.

The Information Disclosure Center said, "It is true that it is difficult to troubleshoot each execution details in a situation where the relevant regulations are not clear," and "There was no problem after checking," without explaining why the auditor was not a problem. "I am worried that I will be giving indulgence to the poor execution of local councils." The center pointed out that "the improvement of the system to prevent the execution of work promotion expenses from being concentrated in certain companies with interests with the lawmakers must be accompanied."

● 2 years spent on business promotion expenses of 27.6 billion won... 92.9% of food expenses

Now let's summarize the whole situation. In the past two years, the chairman and the chairman and the chairman and the chairman obtained a request for information disclosure to 226 basic councils across the country and obtained 193,000,291 cases, and the total amount used was 27.6 billion 450,000 won. One parliament spent an average of 12.13 million won.
Jeonju City Council in Jeollabuk-do was the place where the most used amount was. Over the past two years, seven chairmen and chairmen spent 294.2 million won. Changwon City Council in Gyeongsangnam-do was 286.4 million won, Suwon City Council in Gyeonggi Province was 285 million won, Seongnam City Council in Gyeonggi Province was 277.4 million won, and Cheongju City Council in Chungcheongbuk-do was 275 million won. The lowest amount used was the Cheongsong-gun Council in Gyeongbuk, where two chairmen spent 28.21 million won. Gangwon Donghae City Council 31.12 million won, Busan Gijang-gun Council 33.63 million won, Busan Dong-gu Council 31.11 million won, Gangwon Hoengseong-gun Council 38.84 million won.

The population of these cities and counties was 650,000 in Jeonju, 1,040,000 in Changwon, 1.19 million in Suwon, 940,000 in Seongnam and 840,000 in Cheongju, 25,000 in Cheongsong, 90,000 in East Sea, and 170,000 in Gijang. .(Based on the resident registration population of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security in June 2020) In general, the larger the population, the more expensive the work was spent, but it was jagged.

Looking at the chairman/chairman who spent the most money, Jeong-hoon Lee was the first in the first half of Samcheok City, Gangwon-do. It used 144.7 million won (230 cases). Next, Rep. Lee Gwan-soo, who was the chairman of the Gangnam-gu Council in Seoul, spent 96.88 million won (523 cases), and Rep. Lee Chan-ho, chairman of the first half of the Changwon City Council, spent 95.52 million won (523 cases).

It is estimated that 92.9% of the business promotion expenses were used for food. (The rest of the total business promotion expenses, except for details not related to food expenses such as membership fees, souvenirs, gifts, and wreaths.) In the name of meetings, business discussions, and expansion of ties. I paid at the restaurant.

● Self-determined business promotion fee… “I need to record in detail what purpose I used”

Why is the difference between cities, counties, districts, and chairmen/chairmen? This is because there is no standard for organizing. Each council decides autonomously and autonomously how much the chairman and the chairman will spend for business promotion. It does not take into account the financial independence of each local government and the number of populations per lawmaker because it is not necessary, if necessary, how much is appropriate per year, and how it contributes to legislative activities.

Lee Sang-seok, secretary general of'Catch Tax Thieves', a civic organization specializing in budget monitoring of the administration and legislature, said, "Most of the business expenses are money to eat and drink, so I want to ask a fundamental question why it is needed." Even one won will have to submit a receipt and record in detail what purpose it was used for,” he criticized.

○ The chairman who loved coffee.. They like pocket money

The chairman who loved coffee.. Who is the number one micropayment in the country?

Koreans love coffee best in the world. There is also a survey that one person drinks 353 cups of coffee a year and 2.7 times the world average (2019, Hyundai Economic Research Institute). From July 2018 to May 2020, the business promotion cost used in places where'Coffee' or'Café' is included in the name was KRW 195.9 million (6,809). It would be much more if you included the one that was missing here. Drinking coffee during meetings or business meetings with local people is in line with the purpose of enforcing business promotion costs. But what if you had coffee alone or with family and friends?

[Mabujajakchi] separately analyzed the use of less than 10,000 won among the business promotion costs of 226 basic council chairpersons nationwide over the past two years. The reason why I looked at these small payments is that I thought that the cost of the business promotion was used like my own allowance for purposes other than the purpose.
The first place in micropayment was Rep. Lim Tae-geun, who was the chairman of the Seongbuk-gu Council in the first half. Assemblyman Lim made 196 payments for less than 10,000 won over two years. The total amount of use is 1,27,130 won and an average of 6,159 won per case. Gangdong-gu Council's operation chairperson was 169 cases, Seocho-gu Council Finance and Construction Chairperson 148 cases, Seocho-gu Council Administrative Welfare Chairperson 134 cases, Gangbuk-gu Council Vice Chairperson 97 cases.

I also looked for payments under 5,000 won. Also, the first place was Lim, 67 cases (24,1,500 won), followed by Seocho-gu council administrative welfare committee chair 48 cases, Gangdong-gu council operation committee chair 38 cases, Gangbuk-gu council vice chair 29 cases, and Seocho-gu council finance construction committee chair 22 cases. Some rankings have changed from 1st to 5th, but the five have not changed. Of the more than 900 members of the Basic Assembly, 3,726 cases of small payments of less than 10,000 won were 699 cases of less than 5,000 won.

● Part of the legislative activity VS. Private use... results?

Where did you write it. Regardless of the amount of money, the most frequent use of Rep. Lim Tae-geun's work promotion expenses was the OO Coffee Hansung University. I used 41 cases and 33,500 won, but when I checked it, the 7th floor of this cafe building was the home of Rep. Lim. It seems to have had one or two cups of coffee on the way to work from work promotion. In other cafes, 144 cases and 89,400 won were used for the business promotion cost, which is estimated to be consumed by paying less than 10,000 won.

In addition to cafés, Lim used dozens of business promotion fees within 200 meters of his home. I spent 1.07 million won (27 cases) at two marts in front of my house, 390,000 won at a fruit shop, and 210,000 won at a butcher shop, and at a Chinese restaurant on the first floor of my home. For the holidays, 12.2 million won (207 cases, including duplicates) were used. In his hometown of Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, and in nearby Gangjin and Wando-gun, he also spent business promotion fees at rest stops along the way. The Secretariat of Seongbuk-gu said that only one out of six visits by Rep. Lim in the first half of the session was the official schedule of qualifications for the council.

In an inquiry, Rep. Lim explained that "Yuleo-myeon, Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do and Seongbuk-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, formed a sisterhood relationship and had a meal in Boseong." It was a position that it was not a problem that they used it at cafes and restaurants near the house, saying, "You can have a cup of tea (with a business promotion fee), eat rice, and understand that part." However, he admitted that it was wrong to buy meat at a butcher shop and use it when dining with grandchildren at a family restaurant.

The Secretariat of the Seongbuk-gu Council announced that it had reimbursed over 3.4 million won, which had been identified as a problem amid the execution of Prof. Lim's work.

Rep. Kim An-sook, who was the head of the Administrative Welfare Committee for the first half of the Seocho-gu Council in Seoul, who ranked second in payments of less than 5,000 won, spent 65 business promotion expenses at a cafe near Naebang Station in the district, and 20 payments were less than 5,000 won. It is presumed to be a cafe near the house. Park Won-seo, chairman of the first half of the Gangdong-gu council in Seoul, who was third overall, wrote 17 cases in a cafe in Hanam, Gyeonggi-do. Representative Park seems to be near the cafe.

● Chairman's room Decorate the flowers, pay less than 500,000 won,

and what is the relationship between flowers and business promotion cost ? You can buy flowers for the celebration of the resignation or inauguration of the head of the institution, the celebration of national holidays, or the relocation or opening of the institution. Other than that, it should not be used.

Assemblyman Seong-Ja Lee, chairman of the first half of the Gyeonggi-do Suwon City Council. Assembly member Jo used 6.79 million won (12 cases) as a business promotion fee in one local flower shop. Three of these cases met the purpose of execution for the purposes of employee birthdays, celebrations of awards, and visits to sister cities. Nine cases were purchased of environmentally friendly plant pots, which should not be used for business promotion. It is an average of 630,000 won every two or three months to improve the chairman's environment. Six of these were spending more than 500,000 won, and then you had to submit a reason with details. The flower shop was run by Immo, the chairman of the Suwon City Passbook Council.

"Some flowers were sent to official events, and the amount of money increased at the same time," said Assemblyman Cho. "It wasn't driven to a specific company, but the flowers were cheap and traded." "I told the secretary's office that the previous chairpersons did the same thing and did the same thing," he said. "There is enough misunderstanding, so I will forward it to the next chairperson and secretariat for clarity."

Rep. Shin Jae-beom, chairman of the first half of the Hadong-gun Council in Gyeongnam, made a payment by dividing it twice at a company of 480,000 won and 450,000 won on January 22nd as a gift for employees and colleagues. On September 5th of last year, employees also purchased encouraging items such as employees, and used the work promotion expenses to be divided by 450,000 won and 44,000 won. It is estimated to be a'trick' to avoid the reason for spending over 500,000 won.

"I didn't even ask why it was," Shin said, "perhaps it's because the employees want to facilitate accounting."

The chairman's'cut-off' payments confirmed by [Morning] amounted to 141 cases, 47.72 million won. Of the 226 parliamentary councils, 37 of them, 16% of the total, confirmed split payment behavior. This is to avoid submitting a reason for using more than 500,000 won, 8 members of Seongbuk-gu Council, Tae-Geun Lim, who was the first in small amount payment, and 8 members of Hadong-gun Council, followed by 7 members of Jae-Beom Shin.

● Holiday and late night use.
We checked how much we spent on the weekends, public holidays, when there was no official assembly work, or during late night hours. The entire presidency used 9,713 on holidays and 678 between 11 and 6 am. Legislators can participate in activities related to the agenda, such as participating in local events on holidays. Nevertheless, the National Committee on the Rights of the Human Rights recommended that it create its own ordinances with restrictions on the use of holidays and late nights, and some parliaments are following the recommendations. This is because there is a high likelihood that it will lead to personal use in the light of precedent.

During the first two years, it was the chairman of the Gangdong-gu council in Seoul that used the most money for the business promotion on holidays. 620 cases, 36.8 million won was spent. The national average is 44, which is 14 times more. The next order was the Gyeonggi Goyang city council with 299 cases (2,681 million won), followed by 135 cases (1,613 million won) with the Yangsan city council in Gyeongnam. By individual, the first half of the Changwon City Council in Gyeongnam was Chan-Ho Lee, 27,704,000,000 won (93 cases), and in Seoul’s Gangdong-gu council chairman In-taek Lim was 1,663 million won (204 cases), Gyeonggi-do Paju City Council Chairman Son Bae-chan and Son Bae-chan Son, 1,587 million won (138 cases) It was pure. Rep. Tae-Geun Lim, chairman of the first half of the Seongbuk-gu Council, was the eighth-largest number of holidays, but ranked first with 207 cases.

Gangdong-gu Council, which used to have the most holidays, announced that it would reduce the use of holidays, etc. by establishing a code of conduct for lawmakers related to business promotion costs in [Manufacturing Offense].

● When I pointed out the problem of the business promotion cost, the chairman asked me for cash.

"It's too uncomfortable to ask to use it with a card. If it is over midnight, I can't use it, and I can't use it on the weekends.

During the interview, the chairman of the first half of the foundation council said. There are many places to spend money, but there are many restrictions on cards, so you can't use them well. The fact that there was a lawmaker who said that in a situation where there was a great deal of disbelief about the use of the basic council's work promotion expenses was surprising.

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't spend money on business promotion. You just need to properly identify who you met, for what purpose, and at what cost." Chae Yeon-ha, secretary-general of'Citizens' Action Together', who has been monitoring the government and the budget of Congress, pointed out this.

○ Why are they outside the surveillance?

● Local power that is not monitored


"Please read the regulations related to business promotion expenses and thoroughly promote the work so that similar cases do not occur in the future."
-In the results of the audit of the Secretariat of the Dangjin City Council in 2019,

" We hope to take measures to compensate for the deficit of 408,000 won in payment accounts for business promotion and to devise improvement measures to ensure clarity of execution."
-From the results of the Cheonan City Council Secretariat's audit in 2018,

"Recovery of 11.56 million won of unfairly executed business promotion expenses"
-Of the audit results of the Gangnam-gu Council Secretariat in 2016, the

above are some of the audit results from the Secretariat of the Basic Assembly. Last year, the secretariat of the Dangjin city council did not have any redemption or preservation measures, and the Cheonan city council took 400,000 won last year, and about 10 million won from the Gangnam-gu council secretariat four years ago, but the amount is not very large. This is enough to be mistaken for using it relatively well.

The reality is like this.

"Most unknown."

Because I am not grateful. That's because we don't know what's wrong with it. This is the case even though the overall budget of the Basic Assembly is KRW 234.2 billion.
Local governments have'audit rules' that stipulate matters necessary for the operation of their own audit. Not all affiliated organizations or institutions are audited, but only if they are listed as target organizations in this rule. As of July 2020, 73.5% (166) of the basic municipalities that included the parliamentary secretariat or division were included in the audited organizations. In other words, 26.5% (60 items) are not subject to auditing either in the past or even now. What's surprising is that these are recent improvements.

Just two years and six months ago, as of February 2018, 71.2% (161) were not subject to audit. Seven out of ten were not subject to appreciation. In June of the same year, the National Rights and Interest Committee announced a plan to strengthen the follow-up management of local council budget executions, and recommended the inclusion of a parliamentary office as an audit target. So it is improved. The problem is that being included in the audit doesn't necessarily mean being audited.

● 74% who are not grateful... now?
Seoul Gangnam-gu Council opened in 1991 and received a comprehensive audit from the City Council Secretariat for the first time in 2016, 25 years later. As a result of the audit, cases of unfair execution were revealed, such as providing gifts beyond the ritual level, such as beef and barley gulbi, to fellow lawmakers using business promotion expenses at each holiday in 2013-2016. It was taken to redeem 1,157 million won. This is the result of the gratitude mentioned at the beginning of this article.

It could be called an audit best practice. If it continued to be carried out according to the cycle set by the audit rules afterwards. Gangnam-gu revised the'Administrative Audit Rules' in March 2014 to include the Secretariat of the Ward Council for the first time as an audit target organization, and conducted the first ever audit in May 2016. And there was no more. In the same year, even though the audit rule was revised, saying, "The audit period is 3 years," it passed 3 years later, 2019, and there is no plan this year.

Gangnam-gu Office said, "Not all departments are rotated every three years," he said. "Because there are 38 departments and 22 dongs under the ward office, we have to arrange them evenly. We make a plan based on the situation." He also added, "There are many cases where the annual audit plan cannot be met, and this year, due to the corona, we are refraining from auditing." (I searched the homepage of the ward office to confirm the first audit report in 2016, but I could not find it. The Gangnam-gu office posted a report at the end of July 2020, saying that it was omitted by a mistake in charge of the person in charge.)

According to the resolution of the Authority in 2018, 2015-2017 The number of local council offices that did not undergo self-audit for three years was 166, 73.5%. Chae Yeon-ha, Secretary General of'Citizen Actions Together' said, "The biggest common point of local councils and parliaments is that there is no eye for surveillance," he said. "The parliament has the function of setting the budget and monitoring the administration, but the administration has the function of monitoring the parliament. "No." Secretary Chae lamented, "The administration is always in a position to pay attention to, so even if the Congress spends roughly the expenses for the promotion of work, it is not possible to raise issues later unless it is as much as an outside civic group."

● Only 38% of the Parliament, which established the standard for the execution of business promotion expenses

, on July 10, 2020, the Goyang City Council enacted an ordinance. 'Goyang City Council Ordinance on the Use and Disclosure of Business Promotion Expenses' (Co-sponsored by members Yoon Yong-seok, Kim Mi-soo, and Lee Hae-rim). It includes restrictions on personal use of business promotion expenses and use of late-night/holidays, details of use, and sanctions against unfair users. Rep. Yoon Yong-seok, who initiated the ordinance, reported to the plenary session, "It is necessary to secure transparency and increase efficiency of budget execution by clarifying the standards for use and execution of business promotion expenses and disclosing the details of use." The Goyang City Council has been enacted, but most are not. As of July 2020, only 86 or 38% of the parliaments made ordinances or rules on the standards and disclosures of business promotion expenses.

Already seven years ago, in 2013, the National Rights and Interest Committee made and presented a standard draft and recommended the enactment of ordinances to each local council. It was a measure after the local council's illegal and unfair business promotion expenses were revealed and became a big problem. In 2015, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security revised the'Rules on the Execution of Local Government Business Promotion Fees' to stipulate the scope of the local council's business promotion expenses execution, but there were no restrictions on the use for private purposes. The purpose of the recommendation is that each council should make its own standards and use them transparently, but even now, 62% of the basic councils are ignoring the situation.

● Whether it is public or private
This is the execution details of the Suwon city council's business promotion expenses in the second quarter of 2020. The Suwon City Council has been disclosing the execution details of the chairman's work promotion expenses since 2008, and from August 2013, it has disclosed the entire execution details of the chairman and the chairman every quarter according to its own ordinance. It is desirable, but only the date and time, amount, content, and number of people used are disclosed, so it is difficult to understand where they were used, who and for what reason.

Even so, there are 162 and 71.7% of the parliaments, and 28.3% and 64 of the parliaments do not even open it.

Minji Cho, Director General of the Information Disclosure Center for Transparent Society, said, "The level of disclosure of the current business promotion cost is the end of the meeting activity, and this is the end of the meeting." "What kind of meeting or meeting was discussed with whom, so it is necessary to spend the work promotion cost. There was, the regulations must be changed to be specifically written in this way,” he pointed out. Director Cho stressed the need for detailed disclosure, saying, "There are some lawmakers who claim to be unhappy, but the problem is that the Congress is using it to misunderstand that citizens use it very lavishly."

"The new lawmakers don't create new winds, but they learn the existing practices and work according to the old order, and the use of business promotion expenses is the same," said Chae Yeon-ha, the secretary general of civic action together. "It is necessary to break the link between those practices." said. Secretary-General Chae suggested, "It is necessary to think about improvement measures to increase the trust of the council in the local council and to put it into practice."

-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -----
[Side Story] The story of my soul being robbed by the local council

"Because I requested disclosure of information... Wasn't it that I called to work this weekend?"

The weekend in mid-July was in the midst of analyzing the cost of the Basic Assembly's work. When I got a call from an unknown number, I was a public servant of the foundation council. After answering a few questions about the details of the claim, I asked, "Why did you go to work on the weekend?"

'It would be fine to give me what I usually organized, but did I have to work until the weekend?' Anyway, I felt uncomfortable for a while as if I was guilty of coming out on the weekend because of me. However, since then, dozens of similar calls have been made from all over the country.

● The reason we analyzed the cost of the basic assembly
It's an honor (?!), and now there are a number of people who look for it first when they ask for it. There are times when they say goodbye, "I hope you can tell them well".

Since July 2018, when the eight local councils were established, we have requested the disclosure of information on the use of the presidency of 226 basic councils every quarter. It was a campaign of its own to keep watch over the two years total of 27.6 billion won in money and whether the taxes we paid were being spent in Congress.

That campaign, to some extent, worked. Some councils have begun to disclose the details of the work expenses in the form I have requested. There was also a council that said thank you for the help of the sample accelerator file I sent you, not knowing how to disclose it to citizens.

By the way, why was the Basic Assembly the target?
This is what an employee of the Secretariat of the Basic Assembly said to me. It shows the reality of the foundation council as it is.

The Basic Assembly is in the'blind spot of surveillance'. It is different from the National Assembly. Most of the data related to the legislative activities of the Basic Assembly are not disclosed, or even partially disclosed, so it is difficult to check the entire situation, whether it is a civic group or the media. Especially, it was even more so for the business promotion expenses used by the chairman. 
Each parliament had a different budget for the cost of work, so analyzing-evaluating only a few places would not be fair enough, so a total analysis was needed. It wasn't easy. This [Side Story] was prepared as an analyzer that also robbed our souls of how the SBS Data Journalism Team [Surprise] gathered, analyzed, and reported on how data was collected, analyzed, and reported.

● Problem 1: There is no data!
The fact that a request for information disclosure is made to the National Basic Assembly means that we have to debate with 226 councils on whether to disclose data. It's the first step in the tedious data cleaning and analysis process.

After organizing, the number of expenses used for business promotion was 19,291. To check this, you have to download files that are publicly available on the homepages of the 226 councils (if they are public!) or request information disclosure respectively. The first method is to go to all the council sites and download the details of the business promotion expenses, but 64 councils (28%) are not even revealing them. There were many cases where it was not easy to check, such as when trying to find a council that was open to the public.
When asked why it wasn't disclosed, an employee of the Congressional Secretariat responded:

"There are no rules or ordinances to disclose it, so you don't have to post it?"

In fact, the Public Rights Commission and civic organizations have consistently requested the disclosure of the details of the chairmanship's work promotion expenses. The National Human Rights Commission issued a standard draft for the “Rules on the Use and Disclosure of Business Promotion Fees,” which local councils should follow in 2013, and recommended that the national assembly be enacted as an ordinance, but even after seven years, many councils have not responded.

Since it is not disclosed on the website, the information disclosure request system was utilized. The details of the use of business promotion expenses are not private matters, but must be disclosed if requested. 

Usually, upon request, it takes about two weeks to receive the material. You are supposed to answer within 10 days, but 10 days excluding holidays, it actually takes 2 weeks. It may take more time because it is possible to extend the period, but this time, the Jecheon City Council in Chungbuk sent the last data. I first claimed it in early June, and it took me over 20 days to get all the data from the 226 councils. It is only based on primary data. It is common to send poorly or request it again, contact it again after confirmation, and be so frustrated.

So, it took about a month in early July to secure all the details of the work promotion expenses of the 226 council chairpersons that were initially charged. One billing can take such a long time, so when making a national billing, you can save time by making it clear what will be monitored and analyzed before invoicing.

Based on the ``Rules on the Use and Disclosure of Business Promotion Fees'' of the NHRCK, we tried to analyze the usage history and location of weekdays, weekdays, weekends, holidays, and late night hours (after 23:00). It was emphasized on the invoice to be sure to disclose users, content, etc.

I asked for such poor data again, filled it in... It seemed to be flowing smoothly, but an ambush popped out from unexpected places.

● Problem 2: I received and saw useless data

<①  File this problem>
I received the data after twists and turns, but the formats such as Excel, PDF, HWP files are different! That's just a few pieces of data that can be analyzed. To put it a bit exaggerated, it means that to make this an analysisable state, you just have to breathe and cleanse the data.

To alleviate that hardship, I attached a neat sample of Excel data to the invoice and said it would be nice to disclose it like this, but only 23% (53) of the council disclosed it as requested. The remaining 173 councils gave them in PDF, HWP, JPG and Excel, which cannot be analyzed. In fact, it is not mandatory to disclose it in Excel. However, since the file format that is normally managed by the Congress is Excel, we requested it as it is. (The Information Disclosure Act states that if a public institution asks for such disclosure of information held and managed in an electronic form, the request must be followed.)

We requested Excel . The reason is clear. This is because, in order to analyze how much money was spent by parliament and by the presidency, on weekends, holidays, and late at night, it should be in the form of an easy accelerator for numerical analysis. What if I didn't get it in Excel? While viewing the received data, you have to enter them into Excel. 

If it's a PDF format that allows you to edit numbers, it's a good idea. You can use the method of converting PDF to Excel and saving it. However, it is impossible for the Congress to print out the details of the use of the work expenses, take a picture, and disclose it as a PDF. In this case, it was no different from an image (JPG), so I had to manually input one number and one letter into Excel.
Why do we disclose it in such unnecessary format? Is there any special reason? Officers of the Congressional Secretariat  said, "I didn't even reveal what I scanned and released as an image.", "The lawmaker didn't like it very much." Said. Since it is a request for disclosure of information, it cannot be revealed, but there are many council secretariats that watch the lawmakers notice.

Another problem is if you don't disclose as requested. In the bill for disclosure of information, [Fire] requested 9 variables, including date of use, hours of use, place of use, amount, user, and number of people, but many councils have released data minus the time or place. In such a case, the only way to do this is to contact individual councils and request again. Some Council Secretariat staff , "Why do you me to disclose the use of time," did even out, spin the complaint said.

<②  Data is a problem>

Is there any problem if I receive it as an Excel file that is easy for numerical analysis? Files with messy management were even more troublesome. A typical case was that the sheets were divided by year or by chairman, vice-chairman, or standing chairman in a single Excel. I think it was because each council has different management methods. 
As you can see above, one Congress divided into three sheets for 2018, 2019, and 2020, and another Congress divided the Chair, Vice Chair, and Standing Chairperson into sheets. Even in this case, it took a lot of time because each sheet had to be combined manually. Each council had a slightly different format, so I had to look at it and match it. 

The date and time input methods are also different. Although the request was made in the international standard method (ISO 8601) "2019-01-01," most of them are in a format that cannot be recognized as a date, such as '19.01.01','January 1, 2019', and '01 Jan 2019'. The date was necessary to consider the use of weekends and holidays, but most of the formats did not fit, so eventually all 190,000 cases had to be checked and corrected

The purpose of the information disclosure request system is to disclose information of public institutions transparently. In this way, it's just a'because it's public, so it's no use to disclose it for disclosure, isn't it?' Isn't it a serious concern about how to manage and disclose data from the people's point of view? this required.

● Question 3: Where are the government's role

. the method also consistently reveal the basic tasks chujinbi of Congress Bureau history where such a public data portal or financial portal gathering of local NGOs 'involvement autonomous regions exercising solidarity' Recently proposed the construction of an integrated information disclosure system for legislative activities of local councils as a public participation budget project.

Minji Cho, secretary general of the "Information Disclosure Center for Transparent Society", a member organization of the solidarity, said, It is necessary to disclose, in reality, it is not easy for individuals to conduct full investigations.” 

However, the review result of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security was'Inappropriate.' It is necessary to integrate and disclose the legislative activities of local councils, but it is legal. It was because there was no evidence, but it is not too late, but the Ministry of Public Administration and Security initiated five proposals and amendments to related laws including the Local Autonomy Act on July 3. If these laws are passed, the presidency of the local council will properly pay the cost for the business promotion. It will be a little easier to monitor whether it is being used or whether other legislative activities are also being performed well.

[Stopper] plans to continue monitoring the overall legislative activities of the local council, including the cost  of work. angetjyo not robbed?

coverage : simyounggu, pear aftertaste, Chung, Hae - Kyung, baejeonghun  design anjunseok:  the Turn : Lee Yoo-min, Lee Seung-woo, Kim Ji-yeon, and Lee Ki-eun

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