“80% of Busan City Sports Council’s budget is subsidy… Need to secure independent financial resources”
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(Busan = Yonhap News) Reporter Oh Su-hee = The Busan City Sports Council is securing about 80% of its annual budget with city subsidies, but it is responding passively to recurring problems, and so there is criticism that special reform measures are needed.
According to Rep. Kim Hyeong-cheol (Yeonje 2), a member of the People Power Party and a member of the Planning and Finance Committee of the Busan City Council on the 31st, four years have passed since the Busan City Sports Council was established with an elected chairman, but it has not achieved actual financial independence.
Councilman Kim said, “Out of the city sports council’s budget of 36 billion won this year, 80% is dependent on city subsidies, and while the city sports council’s budget has increased by an average annual rate of 1.3% since the inauguration of the elected chairman, the city subsidies have increased by 7.5%, which is six times the average annual growth rate of the budget.” He also pointed out that “the average annual growth rate of operating expenses (4%) was three times higher than the budget growth rate.”
He continued, “Over the past four years, 1,085 billion won, or 76.1% of the city sports council’s budget of 1,426 billion won, has been operated as city subsidies, but Busan citizens and athletes do not feel the role of the city sports council.”
Rep. Kim criticized, “Although there are successive media reports pointing out the chronic problems of the city’s sports council, the sports council is responding lukewarmly and passively, and there is no sign of improvement.”
He also ordered, “The city sports council should come up with a plan to restructure budget management through efficient financial management, while also finding ways to secure independent financial resources,” and “It should immediately begin establishing a system to secure operational transparency and improve internal self-regulation.”
osh9981@yna.co.kr