It has been revealed through an audit that the chairman of an urban management corporation in a Seoul district hired an acquaintance as a sandwich-making instructor and paid exorbitant lecture fees reaching up to 1.6 million won per session.

The Board of Audit and Inspection released the results of its audit regarding the management, supervision, and quasi-budget execution of the Seodaemun-gu Urban Management Corporation in Seoul today (29th).

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, former corporation chairman A hired an acquaintance, B, to conduct a total of 11 lectures at women's centers and experiential events between 2023 and 2024, despite B having opened a sandwich shop in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, for only two months.

In this process, following instructions from A, the corporation applied a pay grade equivalent to that of a "former cabinet minister" to B, paying lecture fees ranging from 1.3 million won to 2.2 million won per session, amounting to a total of 17.9 million won.

For 10 classes held at the women's center with a capacity of 8 participants, generally 1.6 million won was paid per session, while 1.3 million won was paid for an experiential event commemorating the 79th Liberation Day held at the Seodaemun Prison History Hall.

However, according to the instructor allowance payment standards applied by the corporation, the appropriate lecture fee for someone with less than 5 years of experience was about 240,000 won per session.

When scheduling the lectures, A personally called B directly every month to set the dates, and even provided unfair favors, such as having corporation employees take care of purchasing and preparing ingredients that the instructor was supposed to handle.

The Board of Audit and Inspection stated, "Although we determined that A's actions warrant strict personnel action, A retired last April." It has notified Seodaemun-gu to use A's misconduct records as personnel data and urged caution for those involved.