[Anchor]

While leaving facilities built with taxpayers' money vacant is a problem in itself, some places are taking profits by running private-name cafes while pushing temple stays to the back burner.

Reporter Noh Yujin investigated the scene.

[Reporter]

The Templestay Experience Center at Jingwansa Temple in Seoul.

This is a building constructed with a total of 3.1 billion won in government subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and Eunpyeong District.

However, the first floor, which is crowded with customers even on weekdays, is operating as a cafe.

[Cafe Staff: (Could we perhaps meet the owner?) Our representative is a monk.]

The business registration name for the cafe is not a religious corporation or the representative of Jingwansa Temple, but rather a former head monk.

An individual is running a profit-making business in a building constructed with tax money.

The business plan initially submitted stated that the first floor would feature an exhibition and promotion hall, a temple food experience center, and a tourist information center for foreigners.

However, it has completely changed from the original plan into a cafe selling coffee and other items.

Jingwansa Temple maintains that there is no problem, stating that the Seoul Metropolitan Government approved it and that the profits are used for templestay operating expenses and other purposes.

[Jingwansa Temple Official: When profits are generated there, those profits are used as operating costs. That is the funding source for which we received business approval.]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government, the authority granting approval, also takes the stance that it is no big deal.

[Seoul Metropolitan Government Official: The detailed contents of business progress can change during the design process, and we did not view it as such a major change.]

However, experts hold a different view.

[Song Jin-ho / Visiting Research Fellow, Korea Civil Budget Center: Just wrapping it up by saying that the profits generated from the cafe are simply being used well for the templestay is not a legitimate procedure.]

Although Seoul Metropolitan Government guidelines also stipulate that the generation of profits and the entity to which they are attributed should be clearly determined, there is no mention of profits anywhere in the grant decision document.

There is neither a way to verify whether the profits are used for the templestay nor a basis to sanction it.

This contrasts with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism explicitly specifying conditions to use subsidies strictly according to the purpose of operating templestays.

Furthermore, Jingwansa Temple receives separate templestay operation support funds from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Seoul Metropolitan Government every year.

The operation support funds received last year alone amounted to about 100 million won.

Another problem is that while receiving subsidies as budgeted, templestays are actually put on the back burner.

Last month, there was not a single day with programs open to the general public.

[Jingwansa Templestay Staff: (Are you not doing it in July?) In July, we had work... we had a schedule, so on August 5.]

Even on the days they do open, it is only once a month.

The rule stating that day-trip programs must be held more than four times a month has become meaningless.

Among the 159 government-supported templestay temples nationwide, 13 are in a situation where making reservations is difficult even on their official websites.

[Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Official: If operations do not normalize, we are seriously considering measures beyond the existing evaluations, such as excluding them from designated temples.]

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism stated that it will launch an on-site inspection.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Seol Min-hwan | Video by Lee Hong-myung | Graphics by Kim Min-young | VJ by Kim Jun-ho