Seoul's Citizens Audit Ombudsman Committee voted Sept. 22 to extend the residents' audit period

Second extension since August as committee awaits Ministry of Interior and Safety response

Jeong Won-o, former Seongdong-gu district mayor in Seoul, who ran as the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate in the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]
Jeong Won-o, former Seongdong-gu district mayor in Seoul, who ran as the Democratic Party of Korea's Seoul mayoral candidate in the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]

Seoul has extended for a second time the public interest audit period tied to allegations surrounding former Seongdong-gu District Mayor Jeong Won-o's official trip to Cancun, Mexico.

Seoul's Citizens Audit Ombudsman Committee voted Sept. 22 to extend the residents' audit into the former district mayor's overseas business trip. The audit, which began June 25, had originally been set to conclude Aug. 24 before a first extension was granted Aug. 20. With the latest extension, the audit is now scheduled to wrap up Oct. 23.

A committee official said the panel had requested a legal interpretation from the Ministry of Interior and Safety regarding the residents' audit and was awaiting a response, adding that additional matters requiring review also factored into the decision to extend. The official said the committee had informed the audit petitioners that a conclusion would be delivered by Oct. 23.

Under the ordinance governing the committee's operations and residents' audit requests, the committee must complete an audit within 60 days of deciding to conduct one and notify the petitioners' representative and the head of the audited agency or department of the results within 10 days. The period may be extended if there is a legitimate reason the audit cannot be completed within that timeframe.

More than 300 Seongdong-gu residents filed a residents' audit request with the committee in April, calling for an investigation into the circumstances under which Jeong was accompanied on his 2023 Mexico trip by a specific female civil servant, and why that employee's gender was incorrectly recorded as male in official documents. The residents also called for scrutiny of the procedures used to prepare and manage the trip documents, as well as the details of how trip expenses were disbursed.

During the election campaign, Jeong's camp said the civil servant who accompanied him was not only the official in charge of the relevant work but also handled all operational duties for the delegation, calling it "unconscionable negative campaigning beyond the bounds of basic decency" to raise questions simply because the employee was a woman. The camp also said the gender error in the overseas trip review document was a simple clerical mistake by the district office, and that redacting personal information such as gender and date of birth when providing documents in response to external requests is standard practice. It added that it intended to hold those responsible for "baseless negative attacks" accountable.


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