10 annual memberships purchased for employee welfare

Corporate card misuse cases also flagged this year

Everland's new fall performance 'Ppuppa Band.' [Samsung C&T]
Everland's new fall performance 'Ppuppa Band.' [Samsung C&T]

The Bank of Korea used a corporate card to spend 70 million won ($52,200) in a single transaction on annual Everland memberships this year.

According to data obtained by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Bae Jun-young of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee, the largest single corporate card charge at the Bank of Korea this year was 70 million won — used to purchase 10 corporate annual memberships to Everland. The bank said the purchase complied with its welfare policy, which supports employees and their families in using recreational facilities.

The Bank of Korea issued a total of 679 corporate cards to staff from last year through June this year. Spending limits per card range from 300,000 won to 300 million won. From January through July this year, the average monthly spending per card ranged from a low of 994,900 won in February to a high of 2.17 million won in April.

Some cards were also used for unauthorized purposes. The bank flagged 15 cases of corporate card misuse this year, totaling 2.74 million won. By amount, charges with insufficient business relevance accounted for the largest share — three cases totaling 1.96 million won, or 72 percent of the total. By number of incidents, use near an employee's home was the most common, with eight cases totaling 244,600 won. Two cases of use on non-working days totaling 349,800 won and two cases of out-of-jurisdiction use totaling 182,000 won were also detected.

The bank said it identified the misuse through internal departmental reviews and recovered the full 2.74 million won. Employees found in violation received a verbal warning from the governor and were directed to review the code of conduct for executives and staff and complete integrity and ethics education programs.

"As the central bank, the Bank of Korea must rigorously review the appropriateness of budget execution and actual usage," Bae said. "It must strengthen oversight to ensure corporate cards are used transparently for their intended purposes, and respond strictly to any violations of guidelines."


kimstar@heraldcorp.com