The Korea Center for Investigative Journalism(KCIJ)-Newstapa has been conducting the Prosecutors’ Office Budget Watch Project with three civic groups: Catch the Tax Thieves, The Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society, and Citizens’ Action Network.

This is our second collaboration to oversee the budgets and actual expenses of the institutional power, following Tax Thieves at the National Assembly Project of 2020, which tracked down more than 80 lawmakers who misused taxes and made them restitute more than KRW 200 million.

After a legal battle for 3 years and 5 months, the joint investigation team obtained 16,735 pages of expense records of several expense categories, such as including special activity expenses, from prosecutors’ offices nationwide. It’s the very first time that a media or civic group acquired the records via freedom of information request.

This project aims to identify tax misuses as with institutions of power. The true nature of prosecutors’ budget, which had been hidden for decades, will soon be revealed.

The investigation will continue in coming months as more expense records are to come in. – Editor’s note

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s Guidelines for Budget and Fund Management Plan, special activity expenses fall under the “direct expenses incurred in the course of investigating cases and information that require confidentiality or conducting other similar state affairs such as diplomatic, national security or security activities, etc.”. Therefore, special activity expenses can be seen as a budget that must be executed for the purpose of an investigation that requires confidentiality.

However, after reviewing the expenditure evidence of the prosecution’s special activity expenses for 29 months secured by Newstapa and civil organizations for the first time, it was confirmed that more than half of the total expenditure was executed on a regular basis, like salaries every month. Contrary to the name, it is doubtful whether the prosecution has regarded the special activity expenses as “budget outside the budget” or “extra money in the pouch” that does not need to be documented.

From May 2017 to Sep 2019, the prosecution spent KRW 29,207,942,900 of special activity expenses, of which the money paid regularly every month without special reasons is KRW 15,595,144,800, which is 53.84% of the total amount.

Of this regular payment, KRW 8,051,460,000 was wire transferred to the High Prosecutors’ Office, District Prosecutors’ Office and Brance Offices throughout the country every month, while the remaining KRW 4,543,684,800 was paid in cash to 15 to 17 people or agencies for 29 months.

The expenditure evidence materials of the prosecution’s special activity expenses received by Newstapa can be classified into four types based on their nature, and they were arbitrarily named sets A, B, C, and D. Among them, the regular payments are the amount stated in Table “Payment Details of Special Activity Expenses” and “Receipts and Confirmation of Execution” from Set A and Table “Payment Details of Special Activity Expenses” and “National Treasury Deposit Request” from Set B.

Set B is the materials related to the special activity expenses wire transferred to the prosecutors’ offices throughout the country. According to Table B “Payment Details of Special Activity Expenses”, about KRW 200 million to 400 million was wire transferred to 64 to 65 government offices between May 2017 and Sep 2019.

Although the prosecution concealed all the names of the government offices, it is highly presumed that these 64-65 government offices are the prosecutors’ offices of Korea because the numbers match the exact number of prosecutors’ offices throughout the country. In Mar 2017, the Western Branch of Busan District Prosecutors’ Office was newly opened, and the total number of high prosecutors’ offices, district prosecutors’ offices, and branch offices nationwide were 64. Then, with the Suwon High Prosecutors’ Office newly opened on Mar 1, 2019, the number of prosecutors’ offices to which the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office wire transfers the special activity expenses has increased to 65.

The total special activity expenses paid regularly to prosecution offices nationwide from May 2017 to Sep 2019 was KRW 8,051,460,000

From the four types of materials, Set A also consists of information related to regular payment. According to Table A of Payment Details of Special Activity Expenses and Receipts and Confirmation for Execution, special activity expenses were paid regularly to about 15 people or agencies every month. For example, according to the materials from Jan to Sep 2019, 15 people wrote a one-page receipt and received KRW 190,520,000 in cash every month. However, the people or agencies that took the money can’t be identified as the prosecution concealed all the information.

We confirmed that between Jun 2017 and Sep 2019, 15 to 22 unidentified people received an average of over KRW 200 million in cash every month. This amount was regularly paid in addition to the regular payments wire transferred to the prosecutors’ offices nationwide. The total amount is KRW 4,543,684,800

The fact that special activity expenses were regularly executed regardless of confidential investigation is also revealed in the ruling of the first trial of the dismissal revocation litigation of Lee Young-ryeol, the former chief of Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, who was dismissed in 2017 after he was found to have handed over money envelopes to prosecutors for special activity expenses.

According to the statements made by those involved in the case found in the 13-page ruling at the time, the special activity expenses paid to the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office is KRW 35 million per month and the Finance Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office withdraws KRW 18 million in cash and gives it to the chief, who puts it in a double safe in the secretariat of chief prosecutor. Also, the Prosecutor General gives the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office KRW 15 million in cash every month, KRW 13.5 of which is paid to the secondary and tertiary deputy chief prosecutors for investigation activity expenses, and the rest is kept in a safe as special activity expenses.

Special activity expenses should have been executed through a proper procedure when prosecutors needed to carry out investigations that required confidentiality, but instead, they were distributed regularly because the Prosecutor General’s right to compile budgets has not been monitored.

The heads of other government agencies, which have the right to compile budgets, are audited by the National Assembly regarding the use of their budgets. However, the prosecution is an exception. For two years and five months, the Prosecutor General compiles and uses the budget by arbitrarily setting the ratio and amount without being controlled or monitored by external parties such as the National Assembly.

“The purpose of special activity expenses is to use them as expenses when needed by prosecutors and investigators who are hands-on workers, but it is likely that executives of organizations or chief of prosecutors are actually using them as operating or working expenses,” said Ha Seung-soo, the representative of Get Tax Thieves. “Special activity expenses being paid regularly every month defeats its original purpose,” he added.

Civil organizations such as Sedojab, Citizens’ Action Network, and the Center for Freedom of Information and Transparent Society (CFOI) with Newstapa, the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism (KCIJ), for the first time, have disclosed the records of special activity expenses from the 16,735-page original materials of the prosecution’s budget execution that were finally secured after three years and five months of administrative litigation.

Open the special page Opening the Prosecution’s Safe to check out and download the original records of the prosecution’s special activity expenses executed on a monthly basis from May 2017 to Sep 2019.