It was revealed that the budget for supporting the establishment of animal protection centers was only 4% used as of September this year, yet next year's budget has instead been increased. There were also projects where the National Assembly's requests for correction were not fully reflected, such as the persistence of service waiting lists even after improving the treatment of care personnel.

According to the National Assembly Budget Office (NABO), an analysis of next year's government budget bill showed that 47 cases of improvements requested by the National Assembly during the settlement review were not properly reflected.

According to NABO's report on the "Settlement-Linked 2027 Budget Bill Analysis" released on the 2nd, 47 out of the settlement correction demands for the 2024 fiscal year were analyzed as failing to properly reflect the purpose of improvement in next year's budget bill.

By category, cases of sluggish budget execution or project performance were the highest at 19 cases. There were 9 cases of poor project planning or cost estimation, and 5 cases of inappropriate accounting or budget item allocation. Cases with weak legal grounds or institutional foundations accounted for 2 cases, and other matters accounted for 12 cases.

A representative example is the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' companion animal infrastructure construction project. This project, which supports local governments in establishing animal protection centers, has seen its actual budget execution rate fall below 40% every year since 2019. In response, the National Assembly demanded improvements, such as inspecting project progress and strengthening sanctions against local governments that abandon projects.

The Ministry of Agriculture reported that it had completed improvement measures by adding resident consent as a project application requirement and adjusting the project period and annual budget allocation method according to the scale of the project. However, as of the end of September this year, out of a budget of 3.05 billion won, only 123.07 million won was actually executed. The execution rate stood at a mere 4%.

Despite this, the government allocated 3.57 billion won for next year's budget, a 17% increase from this year, in order to add four new local governments. NABO pointed out that it is necessary to check preparation statuses—such as whether newly participating local governments have secured sites and obtained resident consent—and review whether the budget increase is appropriate considering the performance of existing projects.

The childcare support project (Ildobom Support Project) also showed that the service waiting list problem still remains even after improvement measures. Previously, the National Assembly demanded improving the treatment of childcare helpers to secure personnel and expanding night and weekend care. In response, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family reported "completion of measures," stating that it had raised activity allowances and infant care allowances and expanded night emergency childcare services.

However, as of June this year, among 134,095 households that applied for childcare services, 119,764 households were linked to use the service, resulting in a linking rate of 89.3%. Households on the waiting list numbered 11,992, and the average waiting period reached 26.8 days. The problem was also pointed out that the number of people who received childcare helper training did not sufficiently translate into an expansion of actual active personnel.

Last year, the number of people trained was 12,736, but the actual active personnel increased by only 2,083 compared to the previous year. NABO pointed out that management is needed so that training leads to hiring and continuous activity, and the adequacy of next year's personnel expansion plan should be reviewed.

For the regional essential physician support project, the possibility was also raised that next year's budget was excessively allocated compared to actual personnel recruitment. As of July this year, the number of confirmed recruited physicians was 92. However, the government allocated 9.92 billion won next year—a 167.2% increase from this year's supplementary budget—under the premise of supporting 318 physicians for 12 months.

In this project, out of 1.35 billion won allocated last year, only 760 million won was actually executed. Even though the execution possibility within the year was low due to delayed physician recruitment, the remaining subsidies were disbursed in full. NABO noted that it is necessary to adjust next year's budget to an executable level by reflecting actual recruitment performance and regional demand.

The space industry cluster triangular system construction project also experienced sluggish budget execution due to project delays. As of the end of August this year, out of the total 40.09 billion won allocation, the execution amount was 970 million won, resulting in an actual execution rate of 2.4%. NABO pointed out that the budget should be adjusted in accordance with the project implementation schedule, and grants should be disbursed in stages by considering the funds already held by executing agencies and the actual required amount.

As such, there were not a few cases where the National Assembly pointed out the same problems year after year. Out of 1,987 settlement correction demands for the 2024 fiscal year, 305 were pointed out for the same or similar issues in the previous two fiscal years. In particular, 70 cases were repeated correction demands for three consecutive years.

NABO stated that additional discussions are needed during the National Assembly's review process so that execution performance, project preparedness, and actual demand confirmed in the settlement are reflected in next year's budget bill.

[ⓒ Global Economic Times. 무단전재-재배포 금지]