Kim Hee-joong, president of the Korea Road Traffic Authority (KoROAD), went on an overseas business trip in May to attend an international conference held in Germany. However, it was revealed that he spent more than half of the 7-night, 9-day trip in the Czech Republic. Although an internal review prior to the trip had already pointed out problems with the itinerary, he went ahead with the trip anyway.
Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon reports exclusively.
[Reporter]
Kim Hee-joong, president of KoROAD, a quasi-government agency under the Korean National Police Agency, traveled abroad in May to attend the general assembly of the International Commission for Driver Testing (CIECA) held in Dresden, Germany.
This is the business trip report obtained by SBS.
Out of the 7-night, 9-day itinerary, only 3 nights were actually spent in Dresden, Germany, while 4 nights were spent in Prague, Czech Republic.
According to the report, on the day after arriving in Prague, they inspected sites including the Czech Public Transport Museum.
However, SBS's reporting revealed that they did not actually visit the transport museum on that day.
The agency explained that they changed the schedule to recover from fatigue caused by the long flight and jet lag, and to review conference materials.
These are the conference materials that the delegation claimed to have "studied even while changing the itinerary."
They consist of just three pages in total, containing an introduction to KoROAD and the procedures and structure of South Korea's driver's license testing.
Minutes from the internal review committee meeting held before the trip tell a similar story.
One reviewer asked, "I wonder whether visiting the Czech transport museum is really a necessary itinerary," while another pointed out the need to adjust the stay in the Czech Republic, asking, "Isn't the actual official business schedule the international conference in Germany?"
KoROAD has been attending this annual international driver testing conference since 2012.
However, for the past decade or so, attendees have typically been the director of the driver testing division or the head of the driver licensing headquarters.
This year marked the first time the agency's president attended.
The travel expenses for the four individuals, including President Kim, totaled 50.38 million won.
[Chae Hyun-il / Member of the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee (Democratic Party of Korea): A false business trip report wasted taxpayers' money, confirming that this was a typical junket.]
The agency explained that using Prague Airport in the Czech Republic was better in terms of travel routes and airfare, and that the president took the trip this time because there was a need to personally observe the driver's license systems of various countries.
(Video by Kim Seung-tae and Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing by Kim Jun-hee | Graphics by Hwang Se-yeon)
