Taxpayer money wasted: ‘Find the Nation’s Money’ project has already uncovered over 1 trillion won

[Financial News] Signs have emerged that more than 1 trillion won in taxpayer money was wasted on public contracts through the Public Procurement Service’s KONEPS procurement system. The Reform Party is running its ‘Find 50 Trillion Won in Public Funds’ project to let anyone use AI-powered data analysis to identify cases of tax waste. The total price discrepancies in suspected cases uncovered by participants alone have exceeded 1.1 trillion won. Cases identified by the Reform Party itself amount to around 1.5 trillion won.
According to the Reform Party on the 18th, Rep. Lee Jun-seok and the party have been running the ‘50 Trillion Won Tax-Finding Project: KONEPS Hackathon’ since the 12th. Anyone can use AI to analyze Public Procurement Service contracts on KONEPS and identify cases of tax waste.
Earlier, Rep. Lee Jun-seok analyzed 1.05 million items and 2.8 million delivery requests listed on KONEPS, along with public contracts worth a total of 130 trillion won, and concluded that 562.8 billion won in taxpayer money had been wasted. He identified practices such as paying inflated prices—above the retail price—for products and favoring specific companies.
As of 4 p.m. on the 18th, the amount uncovered by netizens taking part in the project had reached 1.1418 trillion won. Reports have identified cases in which products available in the 10,000-won range were purchased at prices inflated to at least 30 times the usual price. Examples include a wired telephone available on the market for under 50,000 won that was bought for 182,000 won, and a power strip worth around 50,000 won purchased for about 200,000 won. The estimated number of contracts for purchases above a fair price has exceeded 18,860.
The Reform Party will run the project through the 25th. It plans to distribute a total of 10 million won in prize money among participants in proportion to the value of valid findings they uncover.
[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter