Taxpayer-Funded 9-Day European Trips: The Revival of the NEC's 'Overseas Junket Cartel'

It has been revealed that the National Election Commission (NEC) has been spending nearly 200 million won annually to send officials from ruling and opposition parties, including the Democratic Party and the People Power Party, on overseas training trips that resemble junkets. The program, which was halted two years ago due to government budget cuts, was reinstated with an 80 million won budget following a request from a Democratic Party lawmaker.

According to data submitted by the NEC to the office of Reform Party lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram, the NEC has operated a program titled "Training on Foreign Political Parties and Political Systems," sending around 10 party officials, selected proportionally based on their number of parliamentary seats, to regions including Europe and Australia.

The party officials visited countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Germany, and Austria on itineraries lasting 9 to 10 days.

Travel expenses amounted to approximately 183 million won for two trips in 2022 and 158 million won for two trips in 2023.

Each trip was accompanied by 3 to 4 NEC staff members in addition to the 8 to 13 party officials.

The project was suspended in 2024 and 2025 after the Ministry of Economy and Finance cut the entire budget following the NEC's involvement in a scandal regarding preferential hiring of children, which led to an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection in 2023.

However, after the NEC requested 178 million won for the 2026 budget to resume the training, the request was initially not reflected. It was only after a Democratic Party lawmaker demanded the budget allocation during the National Assembly's budget review process that 80 million won was re-appropriated.

Lawmaker Cheon pointed out, "NEC staff members, accounting for a staggering 30 percent of the total number of travelers, filled the trips to go on sightseeing tours," adding, "Most of the training reports are filled with 'regional overview materials' that are simply copied from online encyclopedias, covering basic geography and culture of the countries visited."

He further urged, "Stop the execution immediately and return the entire amount."

Reported by Jung Da-eun | Video by Choi Gang-san | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.