Administrative Investigation to be Pursued Over 'Financial Crisis'... Assemblymember Lee Seong-won Says "Must Question Whether It's Political Declaration or Based on Facts"
Assemblymember Lee Seong-won (Democratic Party, Siheung District 5) of the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly is pushing forward with a request to initiate an administrative investigation to verify the causes surrounding Gyeonggi Province's declaration of 'financial emergency' and overall fiscal management.
Assemblymember Lee Seong-won is currently preparing a matter titled "Request for Administrative Investigation to Clarify Causes of Gyeonggi Province's Financial Crisis and Normalize Fiscal Management" (working title) and is pursuing measures to comprehensively verify at the assembly level whether the province's financial emergency declaration aligns with actual financial and settlement data.
Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae officially declared the province's financial status as an 'emergency situation' on August 5 and announced emergency measures including expenditure restructuring, blocking wasteful spending, and improving revenue structure. At the time, Gyeonggi Province stated that a supplementary budget reduction of approximately 770 billion won was necessary this year, thereby formalizing structural fiscal problems.
In response, Assemblymember Lee Seong-won holds the position that "the financial emergency declaration must not end as merely a political or administrative declaration, and its basis and causes must be confirmed through objective data."
The proposed administrative investigation is intended to include not only the basis and decision-making process of the financial emergency declaration, but also broadly investigate the revenue and expenditure structure over recent years, debt and fund management, the appropriateness of revenue forecasts, the formulation of budgets, the management of ongoing projects and mandatory expenditures, and other matters.
In particular, the investigation will focus on whether local debt issuance and fund utilization cited by the provincial government as causes of the fiscal crisis actually match financial data to a reasonable degree, whether there were judgment errors or structural problems in the revenue estimation and expenditure compilation process, and why certain essential and livelihood projects were not adequately reflected in the initial budget.
Assemblymember Lee Seong-won stated, "Since Gyeonggi Province has declared an 'financial emergency situation' on its own, the assembly now needs to verify through data and figures why such a situation has occurred," and added, "If the province intends to reduce projects and request burdens on residents due to financial difficulties, it must first clearly explain whether revenue forecasts and budget compilation were appropriate and whether local debt and fund management were properly managed."
The proposed measure envisions forming an investigative committee of no more than 20 members and conducting the investigation for 90 days from the committee's formation date. If an administrative investigation under the 'Local Autonomy Act' is conducted through the passage of a plenary session resolution, it becomes possible to request the submission of materials as well as the attendance and testimony of relevant officials.
Assemblymember Lee Seong-won stated, "This investigation is not an investigation to blame anyone, but rather a process to verify the actual state of Gyeonggi Province's fiscal management and establish standards for normalization so that the same problems do not recur," while also emphasizing, "Once a financial emergency is declared, the basis and process of that judgment naturally becomes a subject of the assembly's verification."
Assemblymember Lee explained that the core of the proposed measure lies in the fact that since Gyeonggi Province is a broad local government body operating a budget exceeding 40 trillion won annually, changes in fiscal management can have wide-ranging effects on residents' lives and municipal and county finances.