It has been confirmed that hundreds of retired public officials affiliated with the Busan Metropolitan Government have not been able to recover the retirement condolence money they accumulated from their monthly salaries for years.
It is understood that the affected individuals exceed 300, and the overdue condolence money amounts to over 1 billion won.
The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission has also received related complaints and launched an investigation.
Busan operates a retirement condolence fund system targeted at public officials of Grade 5 or higher.
Under this system, those who agree to join have 40,000 won automatically deducted from their monthly salaries, and upon retirement, they receive the accumulated amount all at once as a condolence payment.
While joining was voluntary rather than mandatory, some retired officials claim that the atmosphere at the time made it virtually difficult to refuse subscription.
The problem is that the fund has run dry.
Until 2017, Busan paid higher condolence amounts based on years of service regardless of the individually contributed amounts. Recently, this was compounded by the large-scale retirement of the baby boom generation, which reportedly caused the amount to be paid out to surge rapidly.
Busan changed the system starting in 2017 to pay only what individuals had contributed, but the fund shortage problem was not resolved, ultimately leading to successive delays in retirement condolence payments.
Currently, payments are being sequentially and belatedly distributed to those who retired in the first half of 2021, and retirees after that reportedly have no way of knowing when they will be able to receive their condolence money.
However, there are no clear solutions to normalize the fund.
To resume payments, new subscribers need to increase, but securement has become difficult as the fund depletion and delayed payment facts became known. Furthermore, it is realistically difficult to demand a refund of the difference from retirees who received more condolence money than their past contributions.
Busan's stance is that the retirement condolence fund system is a farewell money-style system voluntarily operated by public officials, and the city merely supported administrative convenience rather than acting as the official management entity.
It has been reported that the system has been operated for at least 28 years without a clear implementation entity. Controversy surrounding the responsibility is also growing, given that funds automatically deducted from public officials' salaries every month have been operated for a long time without a clear management body.
Busan announced plans to hold a general meeting of subscribers in the second half of this year to discuss whether to maintain or abolish the system.
Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Lee Jung-joo | Produced by SBS Digital News
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