Finally, Prosecutors’ ‘budget sanctuaries’ which have been hidden for decades behind the excuse of investigative confidentiality, have collapsed.

Newstapa and three civil organizations (Sedojab, The Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society, and Citizens’ Action Network) received a part of the budget information, including special activity expenses of the prosecutors’ office, for the first time in history yesterday (June 23). This was three years and seven months after we filed an administrative lawsuit against the prosecutors’ office in November 2019. 

The prosecutors’ budget information to be discovered following the Supreme Court’s decision on April 2023 includes details of the execution of special activity expenses, specific business expenses, and business promotion expenses spent by the Prosecutor General and the chief of Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ office and the related documents. It covers two years and 9 months from January 2017 to September 2019.

The budget information we received from the prosecutors’ office included 16,735 A4 sheets, 9,939 from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and 6,796 from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. We received all the information on special activity expenses and business promotion expenses, but only a part of specific business expenses.

The prosecution said they still needed some documents to copy and only gave us a portion of the data, not the entire budget information as required by the ruling. The prosecution stated it would provide the rest of the information as soon as they were copied.

In addition, Newstapa and civil organizations originally requested the information in a file format to make it easier to verify, but the prosecutors’ office only provided copies of it. According to the Freedom of Information Act, when there is a request for information in electronic form, public institutions are required to comply with the request, unless it causes substantial difficulties.

However, Newstapa and civil organizations accepted ‘copies’ because we believed it was more important to receive and verify the data in any form. Newstapa and three civil organizations assessed that the disclosure and verification of the budget data of the prosecutors’ office, a powerful institution, would help realize the public’s ‘right to know,’ strengthen government transparency and become the initiative to reform prosecutors’ offices.

Newstapa reporters and civil organization officials moved the prosecution budget data, totaling 16,735 pages, to the WithNewstapa center in Chungmu-ro, Seoul, to scan and input it into the database, also working on the verification of the data.

Newstapa and three civil organizations have conducted budget monitoring projects, starting the National Assembly in 2017, including the Prosecutor’s Office, the President’s Office, and The Board of Audit and Inspection. In the case of the National Assembly, about 80 members of parliament were caught having wasted taxpayer money, and 200 million won was returned.

What will be the results of the verification on the prosecutors’ budget? Newstapa and three civil organizations will reveal our findings on how prosecutors in Korea, including President Yoon Suk Yeol, have spent taxpayer money as soon as they are available.