▲ Democratic Party candidate for Seoul Mayor Jeong Won-oh bows his head to greet people while sharing his stance regarding the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections at his campaign office on Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul, on June 4.
The Seoul Metropolitan Civil Ombudsman Committee has issued an institutional warning to Seongdong-gu Office regarding suspicions surrounding the official trip to the Mexican resort city of Cancun taken by former Seongdong-gu Mayor Jeong Won-oh.
Announcing the audit results on its website, the ombudsman committee stated, "It was confirmed that relevant regulations and procedures were not observed across multiple operational areas, including the review and post-management of official overseas trips, the execution and settlement of travel expenses, and the hiring of fixed-term public officials." It added, "We have issued an institutional warning for lax overall administrative handling and taken measures to prevent similar cases from recurring."
Through the audit, the committee decided on a total of 7 administrative measures, consisting of 1 institutional warning, 1 demand for correction, 4 recommendations, and 1 caution.
First, regarding the discrepancy where the gender of an accompanying employee was incorrectly recorded in the review resolution document for the official overseas trip, the committee noted that the verification of basic personal information and document management were inadequate, resulting in a caution.
Regarding the failure to register the return report—which is required to be submitted to the Overseas Travel Training Information System within 30 days of returning—up to the present, a correction was demanded.
The ombudsman committee also pointed out that despite holding official airline mileage at the time of the trip, procedures such as priority usage according to relevant regulations were not followed, and travel expenses were paid directly to a travel agency rather than the traveler themselves without securing supporting documents such as a contract.
In particular, concerning local vehicle rental fees, the committee judged that the possibility of overlapping payments with vehicle rental fees covered by the Seongdong Cultural Foundation could not be ruled out, and recommended reviewing a recovery if necessary.
Regarding the controversy surrounding the recruitment of the employee who accompanied the trip, it was pointed out that the official in charge of hiring fixed-term public officials repeatedly omitted procedures for cross-checking and verifying original documents, such as the successful applicant's career certificate.
It was also found that the head of the division overseeing recruitment failed to submit a request for recusal from the screening committee, despite being in the same department as the successful candidate and thus falling under conflict-of-interest exclusion grounds.
In response, the committee recommended strictly observing the recusal and exclusion procedures for screening committee members during the hiring of fixed-term public officials, and establishing a procedure to record and manage the verification results of submitted documents, including career certificates, in writing.
The committee added that because some of the requests for resident audits were linked to matters currently under investigation by investigative agencies, the establishment of criminal charges was excluded from the audit scope, which was limited to the legality and appropriateness of administrative handling.
Previously, 300 Seongdong-gu residents (210 valid petitioners) requested an audit in April regarding the background of how former Mayor Jeong came to take the trip with a public official and the circumstances under which the official's gender was incorrectly recorded in official documents.
A resident audit request is a system where, if the administrative handling belonging to the authority of a local government or its head violates laws or hinders the public interest, a joint signature of a certain number of residents or more allows them to directly request an audit.
When the petition qualifications are met, the city must complete the audit and publicize the results within 60 days from the date the petition is accepted.
However, citing the need for additional review time for legal review and to enhance the completeness of the report, the ombudsman committee extended the audit period twice and announced the results the previous day.
Seongdong-gu, the audited agency, can request a re-deliberation within one month from the date the audit results are announced.
However, Seongdong-gu officials explained that the likelihood of applying for a re-deliberation is low.
This is because it is true that administrative mistakes were made, and the district plans to implement and improve upon the points raised.
In this case, Seongdong-gu must report the implementation results of the pointed-out matters to the ombudsman committee within 60 days after the announcement of the audit results, and the committee will publicize this through its website and other channels.
Regarding this audit, some ruling party lawmakers pointed out during the parliamentary audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, under the implication of "was this a targeted audit ordered by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon?"
In response, the ombudsman committee countered, "The acceptance, processing, and conclusion of resident audit petition cases are matters to be independently judged by the committee according to standards and procedures stipulated by statutes."
From some quarters, criticisms emerged calling it "a damp squib," pointing out that judgments on core suspicions, such as the intentionality of the administrative negligence, were excluded from this audit.
The ombudsman committee explained, "We closely reviewed whether laws and regulations were violated across all petitioned matters," adding, "Suspicions such as the connection between the trip and recruitment, intentionality, and the provision of preferential treatment to a specific individual are matters currently under investigation and were excluded from the audit scope."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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