Board of Audit and Inspection: "Unjust Payment of Monthly Cash Bonuses to Supreme Court Justices and National Court Administration Chief"... 1.3 Billion Won Over 3 Years and 9 Months

Audit Board Announces Supreme Court Regular Audit Findings
Internal Rules Prohibit 'Fixed Monthly Bonuses'
6,131 PCs Stockpiled as Spares and 650 Million Won in Extra OS Fees Paid
94.5% of Sampled Auction Travel Expenses Were Excessively or Duplicately Paid

An audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection has revealed that Supreme Court Justices and the Chief of the National Court Administration have been receiving regular cash encouragement bonuses each month, despite such payments being prohibited under the Supreme Court's own internal guidelines. The total encouragement bonuses paid from 2022 through September of last year amounted to 1,299 million won. In addition, the National Court Administration was found to have kept more than 6,100 PCs in storage as spare equipment—enough for one third of the total workforce—and also made an additional payment of 650 million won for an operating system (OS) upgrade that was already included in an existing contract.

On August 31, the Board of Audit and Inspection released the results of its "Supreme Court Regular Audit" covering these findings. Reviewing the Supreme Court's finances and budget execution for the first time since 2021, the audit found a total of 12 legal and procedural violations, for which it issued warnings and notifications. As the judiciary is an independent constitutional institution, the Board of Audit and Inspection has authority only for accounting audits, not direct oversight of duties.

The most notable issue was the payment of cash encouragement bonuses to Supreme Court Justices and the Chief of National Court Administration. While the Supreme Court's financial guidelines permit encouragement bonuses for outstanding departments or employees, regular, fixed monthly payments without legal justification are expressly prohibited. Despite this, from 2022 through April 2024, the National Court Administration paid each of the 12 justices a cash encouragement bonus twice a month, averaging 2 million won each time. For certain periods, an extra 1 million to 1.5 million won was added per month. Starting in May 2024, the payment dates and amounts varied for each justice, but the annual total per person remained roughly the same. Separately, each justice was already receiving a specific work-related expense of 5.12 million won every month.

The Chief of the National Court Administration also received monthly cash encouragement bonuses: from 2022 to April 2024, the chief was paid 3 million won each month, with an additional 500,000 to 1.5 million won in certain periods. Even afterwards, up through September of last year, the chief received 2 million to 4 million won per month. The total encouragement bonuses for the justices, the chief, and others from 2022 through September of last year amounted to 1,299 million won. Additionally, separate regular payments of 160 million won were made to the security protocol team and the official residence guard of the Supreme Court Chief Justice. However, the Chief Justice himself did not receive any encouragement bonus. The Board of Audit and Inspection warned the National Court Administration to "prohibit the regular payment of monthly encouragement bonuses in fixed amounts."

Procurement of IT equipment also came under scrutiny. When purchasing PCs from 2022 to 2025, the National Court Administration repurchased devices that had already been secured for replacement the previous year, or secured spare units without any clear standards. As a result, as of the end of last year, 6,131 PCs were stored unused. This is enough for approximately one third of the judiciary's total workforce of 18,669 people.

The situation was similar for printers and scanners. The National Court Administration made purchase plans without setting clear standards for the proper number of spare units, and later increased purchases in order to exhaust the remaining budget as unit prices fell during the contract process. In 2025, as the per-unit price for printers dropped from 31,000 won to 25,000 won, the purchase quantity was increased from 4,193 to 5,246 units, an increase of 1,055 units. As of the end of last year, 2,983 printers and 559 scanners were left unused as spare stock.

There were also instances where payments were made twice for work already included in contracts. In 2024, the National Court Administration entered into a computer equipment maintenance contract worth 7.9 billion won annually with Company A. Both the vendor's proposal and project execution plan already included upgrading the Windows operating system. However, the administration later claimed an oral agreement among staff to remove the OS upgrade from the contract, thus making the OS upgrade a separate assignment in April 2025. This inflated the contract amount by an additional 650 million won. The Board of Audit and Inspection found that, since the vendor was already contractually obligated to perform the upgrade, the additional 650 million won was an unnecessary expense.

Furthermore, significant overpayments were found in travel expenses paid to court officials for asset auction surveys. Out of 1,232 sampled auctions with travel expenses paid from 2022 to September of last year, 1,162 cases—94.5%—involved overpayments or duplicate travel expenses for nearby locations. Just in this sample, the estimated excess payments amounted to 43.36 million won.

For example, in Jeonju District Court, when investigating five auction items in the same apartment, 520,000 won was paid instead of the appropriate 55,000 won. Similarly, Daejeon District Court paid 107,000 won instead of the stipulated 20,000 won to an official who conducted three surveys in Daejeon in one day. Auction survey travel expenses are paid from the advance auction deposit provided by the applicant. Overpaid expenses reduce the refund to the applicant, and ultimately increase execution costs for the debtor. During the same period, travel expenses were paid for 273,344 auction cases, suggesting actual excess payments may be much larger, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection.

Problems were also found in accounting for court-published books. From 2021 through September of last year, the National Court Administration received delivery of 41,533 volumes of court journals and legal essays before contracts were signed. For 35,262 of those books, contracts totaling 876.91 million won were made only 85 to 717 days after delivery, while 6,363 volumes remained without contracts as of the audit date. There were also cases where delivery confirmation records did not match the actual delivery date. Manuscript and review fees, which cannot be paid to court judges or staff, were included in book purchase contracts and routed through the Judicial Development Foundation for payment. Between April 2022 and September of last year, 187.49 million won was paid out in this way.

In response, the Board of Audit and Inspection called for improvements to the disclosure method of the "Court Practice Manual" published by the Judicial Research and Training Institute. With an average self-representation rate in civil trials of 90.4% from 2020 to 2024, the goal is to make practical litigation information more accessible to the public. Currently, the manual is only available as a paid print publication. For the "Court Practice Manual: Administration I·II," the printing cost is 11,000 to 14,000 won, but the selling price is 50,000 won.

Citing the Constitutional Court’s practice of releasing its "Constitutional Court Practice Manual" for free on its website, the Board of Audit and Inspection notified the Judicial Research and Training Institute to devise measures to make the "Court Practice Manual" freely available to the public.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.