Lavish Trips Instead Of Infrastructure? Reports Alleged Funds For The 2023 World Scout Jamboree Were Misused

The 2023 World Scout Jamboree continues to bring negative attention to South Korea, as recent news reports claimed that the majority of the event’s funds were allegedly misused by the organizing committee.

| scouts.org

The World Scout Jamboree is the world’s largest youth camp that takes place every four years in different countries. South Korea is hosting the 25th World Scout Jamboree, which started on August 1. About 43,000 young scouts from 158 countries flew into the country to participate in the event. But since its opening day, the event made headlines for its extreme lack of preparation.

Complaints regarding infrastructural lapses have been coming in every day, with children suffering from extreme heat, inadequate medical support, overall cleanliness and hygiene issues, moldy food, and a lack of proper safety measures, among other things.

Attendees of the World Scout Jamboree resting in the heat Moldy eggs that were served at the campsite | SBS

These constant hurdles have brought disgrace to the nation’s name, and netizens couldn’t help but wonder where the ₩200 billion KRW (about $152 million USD) budget given to the Ministry Of Gender Equality and Family went since the event surely didn’t reflect that level of infrastructure.

According to Yonhap News, the data provided by organizers on August 7 revealed that an overwhelming portion of the fund was used for operational and personnel expenses instead of infrastructure. There were reportedly 90 cases of lavish business trips taken by civil servants, paid by the government fund, in the name of research.

The central government, the North Jeolla provincial government, and the jamboree organizing committee revealed that the total budget spent on the event amounted to ₩117 billion KRW (about $88.9 million USD). Out of that amount, ₩87.0 billion KRW (about $66.0 million USD) (74% of the total fund) was used to cover personnel expenses of the organizing committee members and operational costs such as the expenses related to travel and food of the scouts, and the jamboree K-Pop concert.

Around ₩20.5 billion KRW (about $15.6 million USD) went into setting up infrastructure such as water and sewage facilities, parking lots, and water-spraying cooling tunnels. Toilers, showers, and drinking water fountains comprised around 11% of the budget, amounting to ₩13.0 billion KRW (about $9.87 million USD).

Attendees under a cooling tunnel at a campsite in the Saemangeum reclamation area

Meanwhile, government officials, both from the gender equality and family ministry and the North Jeolla provincial government, were revealed to have taken multiple lavish trips abroad in the last eight years, supposedly for research purposes. In 2018, five officials went on an eight-day trip to Switzerland and Italy to investigate successful jamboree hosting events. However, neither of the countries has any experience hosting jamboree.

That same year, another bunch of officials visited Australia in December. In 2019, a different set of officials from the gender equality ministry and the provincial government traveled to the USA to attend the 24th World Scout Jamboree in West Virginia. Most of these trips came with an itinerary largely unrelated to the event, including cruise ship tours and tourist attraction visits.

Some of these officials have given statements justifying some of the off-track activities on their trips. An official from the North Jeoll provincial government said that they were researching to develop the “Saemangeum tourism and leisure industry, in addition to ways to better prepare for the jamboree.”

The site for the 25th World Scout Jamboree

In light of these reported expenditures, lawmakers have called for the government to audit the offices and agencies involved in the event’s organization. The current Yoon Suk Yeol government pointing fingers at the previous Moon Jae In administration, calling for a thorough verification of how the budget exceeding ₩100 billion KRW (about $75.9 million USD) was utilized during its tenure.

Read more about the ongoing crisis surrounding the 2023 World Scout Jamboree here.