Yeongcheon Mayor Kim Byeong-sam holds an emergency press conference at City Hall on Monday to formally apologize to residents over allegations that a city employee embezzled a large sum of public funds. [Yeongcheon City]
Yeongcheon Mayor Kim Byeong-sam holds an emergency press conference at City Hall on Monday to formally apologize to residents over allegations that a city employee embezzled a large sum of public funds. [Yeongcheon City]

Public anger is mounting in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, after a city employee was found to have allegedly embezzled a large sum of public funds.

The allegations that a civil servant entrusted with managing taxpayer money diverted public funds for personal use have prompted widespread criticism over lax discipline in the public sector and weak internal oversight systems.

According to Yeongcheon City on Monday, a civil servant in his or her 30s identified only as A, who handled accounting duties, is accused of manipulating the city's accounting system to fraudulently transfer public funds into a personal bank account on multiple occasions.

The city determined that A transferred 2.5 billion won ($1.68 million) in public funds into a personal account through more than 230 transactions between November last year and June by falsifying the accounting system.

After confirming the circumstances during an internal review, the city referred the case to police and launched an internal audit.

The case has drawn sharp criticism from the local community. "The moral integrity of public officials has hit rock bottom," residents said, adding that it was "absolutely unacceptable" that taxpayer money had been used as personal investment funds.

Calls are also growing for a thorough investigation and accountability measures over the failure of the city's accounting management and internal monitoring systems to detect the alleged misconduct.

In response, Yeongcheon Mayor Kim Byeong-sam held an emergency press conference Monday and issued a formal public apology.

"I sincerely apologize to the citizens," Kim said. "We will hold the civil servant involved and those responsible for oversight strictly accountable, and we will pursue and recover every won of the misappropriated public funds. We will also conduct a special audit and a public-discipline review across all departments to put measures in place to prevent a recurrence."

Police are investigating the scale of the embezzlement, how the funds were used, and the circumstances of the alleged crime. Yeongcheon City is also conducting its own audit to identify failures in its management and oversight processes and to determine who bears responsibility.


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com