South Korea PM Hwang Kyo-ahn on Tuesday vowed to strengthen monitoring of big state projects worth 240T Korean won ($200B) "in an effort to preemptively root out corruption," according to Kang Seung-woo of the KOREA TIMES. Hwang's office said that the government has instigated a "corruption vaccination" program to monitor budget spending for the preparations for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and other large state projects. The Winter Olympics, scheduled for Feb. 9-25, 2018, will receive 5.3T Korean won ($4B) "in subsidies from the government." The PM's Office said, "Given that a temporarily formed organization will handle the large amount of state funds in a short period of time irregularities could occur." The office added that it will "set up a double monitoring system." In response to the announcement, Gangwon Province, where PyeongChang county is located, said that "it is already monitoring businesses related to the Winter Games" (KOREA TIMES, 1/12). YONHAP reported projects that will be subjected to the government's "real-time monitoring include preparation for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the creation of a science business belt in Daejeon." Hwang said, "So far, the handling of corruption has been focused on reactive measures and punishments. But with this kind of approach, it is hard to fundamentally recover the national and social damage incurred by corruption" (YONHAP, 1/12).
