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By Nam Hyun-woo
More than 260 billion won ($189 million) of taxpayer funds was wasted through the improper execution of power generation businesses during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, mostly those involving solar or other renewable energy sources, a government investigation outcome showed Tuesday.
According to the government joint corruption prevention task force at the Office of Government Policy Coordination (OPC), 261.6 billion won from a government-run electricity infrastructure fund was found to have been paid out or loaned to illegally installed power generation projects and projects that submitted fraudulent or manipulated information in 12 municipalities.
The amount accounted for 12.5 percent of a total of 2.1 trillion won paid from the fund to assist power generation projects in the regions. The fraudulent cases mostly involved solar power generation projects, such as loans extended to install fake agricultural facilities under the solar power facilities so as to abide by the law that farmland must be cultivated, contracts with unregistered solar power generation companies and exaggerated tax invoices for solar projects.
The total amount of state budget wasted through such improper projects is anticipated to snowball, because the investigation took only 12 samples out of the total 226 municipalities across the country. The previous Moon government poured 12 trillion won into the electricity infrastructure fund from 2018 to early this year.
"Many of the solar power projects investigated this time were cases of approving businesses without a license," Minister of the OPC Bang Moon-Kyu said during a press briefing.
"As the previous government put strong emphasis on its renewable energy policies, it seems that there was not enough time for municipalities to prepare thoroughly, and in the process of implementing them, cases of poor execution were confirmed on a large scale," Bang said.
While ordering a full investigation into projects assisted by the fund, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo reportedly said, "Taxpayers' money was wasted in a bottomless pit of solar power projects."
Solar power industry officials said that the wasting of public funds had been widely expected from the beginning of the Moon administration, which strongly promoted the expansion of renewable energy ― mostly solar power ― to address concerns about pollution from fossil fuels and the safety of nuclear energy, as well as to complement the possible power shortage stemming from policies to phase out nuclear power.
"As the previous government attempted to promote the country's solar power industries as fast as it could, lax standards were applied in extending loans, and there were countless loopholes in the government's assistance programs," an industry official said.
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