Korea’s State Audit Agency to Investigate Troubled Scout Jamboree
This audit and investigation of the Scout Jamboree could get real interesting considering it is also going to include how North Jeolla province, a major area of support for the prior Moon administration was selected for the event. Was this really the best site for the event or a political favor? It looks like we will eventually find out along with where all the money went:
South Korea’s state audit agency could launch an inspection of what went wrong and who was responsible for the poor organization of the 2023 World Scout Jamboree as early as this week, officials said Sunday.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) has begun preparations to inspect the organizing committee, the North Jeolla Province government, and the gender equality and interior ministries following the event’s conclusion on Saturday, according to the officials.
The jamboree, which ran from Aug. 1-12, opened at a campsite in Saemangeum, a reclaimed wetland on the southwestern coast, but faced severe criticism for lacking the facilities to host some 40,000 participants from around the world during a scorching heat wave earlier this month.
The participants were later relocated to various cities across the nation to escape a powerful approaching typhoon.
Officials said the BAI will announce the launch of the inspection as soon as the number of inspectors is finalized. It is expected to cover everything from how Saemangeum was chosen to host the event, how the necessary infrastructure was built, the operations of the organizing committee and details of where the massive 100 billion won (US$75 million) budget for the jamboree was spent.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
@GIKorea
If Yoon was President at that time, no doubt he would have chosen the Kyungsang provinces where the PPP support bases are or his home province of Kangwon-do for the jamboree.
Then would you have called called out Yoon for the favoritism involved in choosing the sites?
Also, the jamboree aren’t the Olympics or the World Cup.
You don’t need to invest in a lot of infrastructure.
Just a huge camping ground, with good drainage, shade, and enough sanitation and medical facilities.
If the Yoon government didn’t like the site and the conditions, they could have changed it, or delayed the opening to fall.
Even if they couldn’t change it for procedural reasons involving the World Organization of Scout Movement, they could have put in measures such as increasing medical facilities and personnel, better sanitation facilities and more shade and drainage, etc.
If they had done that, they would come out looking prepared and competent.
But instead despite 15 months to fine-tune preparations and plenty of warnings, the Yoon government wasn’t interested, didn’t put much priority, and sat on the problem until the fiasco hit the foreign news outlets.
Then facing an international embarassment, they jumped in with half measures and K-pop concerts to try to put down what was a preventable fiasco.