Korea Investment Corp. under fire for misusing budget

[THE INVESTOR] State-run Korea Investment Corporation is under fire for raising welfare spending and inappropriate use of its budget despite a massive drop in profits.

According to a report compiled by the parliamentary Strategy and Finance Committee, the KIC’s welfare spending jumped 86.3 percent from 2014 to come in at 6.53 billion won (US$5.73 million) last year. In comparison, its net profit nosedived from 51.4 billion won to 18.7 billion won over the same period.

Of the welfare expenditure, 2.4 billion won allocated for its welfare fund for employees. Compared to 2014, the welfare allocation showed an increase of 380 percent.

The report also showed that the KIC used 20 million won for subsidizing birthday events for employees, and used part of its budget to cover monetary gifts given to employees on funerals, weddings and similar personal events.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance, however, prohibits state-run organizations from using their budget to cover such events.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)