2024.06.04. The Fair Economy — Local government officials have been found to have indiscriminately received danger pay for years.
The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission investigated the execution of hazard duty pay at 12 local governments over the three years from January 2021 to December 2023, and released the results on the 4th.
The local governments surveyed were Cheongju, Namyangju-si, Welcome to Gimcheon, Mokpo-city, the Ulsan Nam District Office, Guri, Gunsan, Asan, Chuncheon, the South Jeolla Provincial Government, OSAN city and Nonsan, among others.
Local governments nationwide pay hazard duty allowances, within budget limits, to officials who directly and regularly perform hazardous duties in nine categories specified under the 'Regulations on Allowances, etc. for Local Public Officials,' such as road repair and livestock disease control. The allowance is 60,000 won (about $43) for Class A, 50,000 won (about $36) for Class B, and 40,000 won (about $29) for Class C.
According to the Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission's investigation, 940 people at the 12 target local government agencies improperly received about 620 million won (about $443,000) in hazard pay over three years. The amount detected per agency ranged from as little as 20 million won (about $14,000) to as much as 200 million won (about $143,000).
Among the major cases of improper receipt of hazard duty pay, officials who did not directly perform hazardous duties were found to have received the allowance improperly.
An official at a local government in the Yeongnam region outsourced hazardous work such as 'streetlight maintenance' to a contractor, yet still received 850,000 won (about $610) in hazard duty pay over 17 months, from August 2022 to December 2023.
An official at a local government in the Seoul metropolitan area was in charge of 'vehicle emissions inspections' but had never once actually carried out roadside emissions enforcement, yet received 1.12 million won (about $800) in hazard duty pay over 28 months, from January 2021 to April 2023.
A division chief at another local government in the metropolitan area merely oversaw hazardous work without ever directly performing it, yet still received about 890,000 won (about $640) in hazard duty pay over 18 months, from July 2022 to December 2023.
Officials who did not regularly engage in hazardous duties also improperly received danger pay.
A civil servant at a local government agency in the Honam region received about 900,000 won (about $650) in hazard pay over 18 months from July 2021 to January 2023, despite performing sewage treatment plant facility management duties only once or twice a month, which cannot be considered regular performance of hazardous duties.
A civil servant at a local government agency in the Yeongnam region received 1.44 million won (about $1,045) in hazard pay over 36 months from January 2022 to December 2023, claiming to regularly perform hazardous work despite only performing tasks such as uninterruptible power supply inspections once or twice a year.
There were also cases where officials who performed duties unrelated to hazardous work were caught improperly receiving danger pay.
A civil servant at a local government agency in the Chungcheong region received 440,000 won (about $320) in hazard pay over 12 months from January 2023 to December 2023 while driving the vice mayor's vehicle, which was not a hazardous duty.
An official at a local government in the Honam region received 580,000 won in danger pay over 12 months from January 2023 to December 2023, while performing general administrative tasks such as 'budget work' and 'procurement.'
The Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission plans to notify the relevant agencies of the 940 civil servants at the 12 local government agencies who improperly received hazard pay for hazardous duty, requesting them to take necessary measures such as recovery of funds, and will ask the remaining 231 local government agencies to conduct internal audits.
It also stated that it would notify the relevant agencies of issues such as paying hazard pay without a separate verification procedure or omitting it from audits, to ensure improvements are made.
Jung Seung-yun, vice chairperson and secretary general of the Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission, said, "This survey is significant not only for recovering improperly received hazard duty pay, but even more so for correcting the practice of improper payment and preventing budget waste."
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