Boseong County's 'Stonewalling' Sends Teachers' Training Center Costs Soaring by 12.5 Billion Won... County Also 'Turns a Blind Eye' to 5.9 Billion Won

Site acquisition delayed by three and a half years at a "snail's pace"
Asbestos removal and grave-handling costs also shifted to the Education Office

The construction of the Jeonnam Teachers' Training Center is facing serious difficulties after repeated lack of cooperation and “cost shifting” by Boseong County drove the project cost up by 12.5 billion won from the original plan. Critics say unreasonable administrative delays and steep cuts to funding promised at the outset have undermined trust between the institutions and wasted taxpayer money.

According to detailed agreements and project status documents concerning the “Boseong Teachers' Training Center” obtained by this newspaper on Nov. 6, Boseong County’s passive administration proved to be a major obstacle at various stages of the center’s construction.

A view of the Jeonnam Teachers and Staff Training Center.

Disagreements between the institutions led to friction over the site exchange as early as 2021–2022. Boseong County sought to proceed with the exchange after approval of the county management plan, while the Education Office’s request for an early exchange was ignored. The process was further delayed when the county abruptly changed the appraisal firm. The Education Office ultimately had to plead its case through three consultative meetings and one meeting with the county governor.

In 2022–2023, Boseong County continued to shift unreasonable costs onto the Education Office. Under the original agreement, the center’s site was to be exchanged for the closed Ungchi Elementary School. However, Boseong County suddenly demanded that the Education Office remove asbestos from the closed school. The Education Office ultimately had to cover the asbestos removal itself, spending about 170 million won from its own budget. The work was not completed until February 2023.

That was not all. Boseong County also declined to deal with graves discovered after the site exchange, saying that their removal would be difficult. The Education Office, having run out of patience, had to conduct a comprehensive survey itself and devise a plan for dealing with them.

Administrative procedures also moved at a snail’s pace. It took a full 16 months just to revise Boseong County’s management plan, and consultations on construction were not completed until February 2023. Under the original agreement, the county was to secure ownership and complete the administrative procedures for exchanging public property by the end of December 2019. In reality, the ownership transfer did not take place until July 2023—more than three and a half years later than promised.

While Boseong County let time slip by, the project cost soared. The total cost, which stood at 24.4 billion won at the central investment review stage, rose to 30.8 billion won at the establishment plan stage and ultimately reached 36.9 billion won. The increase included an additional 4.5 billion won in facility costs due to inflation, among other factors.

Nor has Boseong County delivered the support projects worth 5.9 billion won that it originally promised. According to Education Office documents, at the time of the central investment review, the county had pledged a total of 5.9 billion won in local government matching investments and related projects.

This amount comprised 3.7 billion won in the county’s own cooperative projects, including a landscape pedestrian overpass, road improvements to be completed in advance, and water and sewage infrastructure, as well as about 2.2 billion won in related projects, including construction of a bypass road (fire access road) and relocation of utility poles.

When 10 members of the Jeonnam Provincial Council’s Education Committee visited the site in March 2023, the head of Boseong County’s Population Policy Division reportedly pledged that the 3.7 billion won in cooperative projects would “proceed without a hitch.” However, excluding the site exchange, none of the support projects worth the originally promised 5.9 billion won has been delivered to date.

When reporters asked, “Given that the project cost has surged enormously due to passive administration, would Boseong County be responsible for compensating the Education Office for its sunk costs if the project were halted because the county refused to make the matching investment?” a county official avoided giving a direct answer, saying, “That is not for me to judge.”

At the time, the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City Council (Jeonnam) strongly urged the project to break ground promptly and Boseong County to invest actively. Boseong County also reportedly pledged to council members that it would honor the agreement. Yet three years and seven months later, the core project has still not even broken ground.

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