“All 10 of the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s revision requests were ignored” ... Allegations of a rushed rollout of the Future Response Fund

[Financial News] Allegations have emerged that the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) ignored all revision requests from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) and rushed ahead with plans by the Lee Jae Myung administration to establish the 162 trillion won Future Response Fund. MOEF reportedly called for the deletion of a provision on the fund’s surplus funds, but MOEF refused. The People Power Party called for the fund, which it said would extinguish young people’s future, to be scrapped entirely.
Rep. Park Su-young of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Economy Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Center on the 22nd and released MOEF’s comments on the draft Future Response Fund Act and the proposed amendment to the National Finance Act, which MOFE submitted to MOEF on August 27. Park said MOEF had requested the deletion of seven provisions from the Future Response Fund Act and revisions to three provisions in the National Finance Act amendment, but MOEF did not accept the requests.
“MOEF’s biggest concern was the provision on the Future Response Fund’s surplus funds,” Park said. “It opened the way for the fund to deposit surplus funds directly with other funds or accounts without going through the Public Capital Management Fund, or to accept surplus funds directly from other funds. The idea is to make it the administration’s own piggy bank.” He added, “MOEF called for all related provisions to be deleted so the Future Response Fund could serve as a fiscal stabilization mechanism.”
In its review of the proposed amendment to the National Finance Act, MOEF proposed allowing government bonds to be repaid with resources from the Future Response Fund. It also proposed designating the Minister of Economy and Finance, rather than MOEF, as the authority responsible for using excess tax revenue, to prevent its indiscriminate use. Neither proposal was accepted.
Park also released a post published on August 28 on “Empathy and Communication,” an internal message board used by MOEF employees, saying, “Voices opposing the Future Response Fund emerged within MOEF.” The post’s author criticized the fund, writing, “Repaying government bonds and stabilizing the uncertain pension system—that is what truly means preparing for the future. A fund that starts by figuring out how to spend the money is not a Future Response Fund, but merely a Future Extinction Fund.”
On this point, Park said, “No one in the Lee Jae Myung administration listened to the civil servants’ cries. If anything, it was rushed through at breakneck speed. Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Koo Yun-cheol was notified of his dismissal at the airport on August 30, just three days after requesting revisions, while on his way to the United States on a business trip. Two days later, on September 1, the Future Response Fund Act passed the State Council of South Korea as MOEF had proposed.”
Park also urged MOEF to “transparently disclose the circumstances and decision-making process behind its rejection of all 10 formal requests from MOEF,” and called on “President Lee Jae Myung to withdraw entirely the Future Response Fund, which is extinguishing the future of our young people.”
[email protected] Lee Hae-ram Reporter