A Seoul city council member is calling for stronger measures to prevent membership fraud at school facilities following recent scams at swimming pools and other amenities within Seoul schools.
Lee Sae-nal, a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council's Education Committee representing Gangnam District 1 for the People Power Party, criticized the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education's lax oversight of school complex facilities during a briefing on Wednesday.
Lee demanded proactive and objective systems to prevent school safety incidents, pointing to large-scale long-term membership fraud and facility shutdowns at school complexes including Shingu Elementary School's swimming pool.
The lawmaker argued that the education office's passive administration caused harm to citizens and students. She cited evidence that the operating company failed to submit required performance guarantee bonds for five years, while neither the education office nor the school detected the violation.
Lee noted that the same principal remained in position through multiple operator changes without taking proper action. She condemned as "the height of passive administration" the education office's failure to conduct an audit simply because the principal and administrative director had retired.
The lawmaker criticized the education office for failing to fulfill its supervisory duties despite court rulings explicitly stating the school's management responsibility, ultimately leaving citizens and students with significant losses.
To prevent further economic damage, Lee proposed shortening the issuance period for long-term memberships to minimize risk.
She also highlighted the issue of unseparated utility meters at facilities like Jeongok Elementary School's swimming pool as a serious problem causing educational budget waste.
"Because meter separation construction budgets were not allocated in time, an absurd situation occurred where 120 million won in unpaid water bills from the operator had to be covered by school operating funds that should have been spent on students," Lee said.
The lawmaker urged the education office to prioritize budget allocation for completing meter separation projects at remaining schools.
Lee also called on the education office's audit division to establish an objective inspection system that verifies performance guarantee bond compliance during autonomous comprehensive audits, moving away from lenient audit practices. She emphasized the need for strict preventive audits based on clear laws and manuals, rather than internal cover-ups within the education sector.