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It has come to light that every military branch breached the Ministry of National Defense’s policy, which stipulates that “public donations should be utilized for soldiers whenever possible,” by using parts of the donations as incentive funds or for overseas travel costs for officers.

As per the audit report titled “Special Inspection of Public Service Discipline in the Defense Sector,” published on the 8th by the Board of Audit and Inspection, state agencies or public officials are generally not allowed to request donations or donated items. Nevertheless, funds that are voluntarily contributed by the public for specific purposes may be accepted under exceptional circumstances, following approval from a donation review committee. In accordance with the Donation Act, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps received 588.6218 billion South Korean won in donations over five years, from 2020 to 2024, and used 546.7849 billion South Korean won.

The Audit and Inspection Board reviewed the military branches’ use of donations and discovered that 30.9941 billion South Korean won (56.7%) could not be linked to specific purposes. When donations were utilized for buying and distributing goods, only records confirming the purchases were maintained, without any evidence of how the items were distributed. Only receipts for 30.9 billion South Korean won worth of purchased items were available.

Out of the remaining 23.68439 billion Korean won, only 4.4353 billion Korean won (8.1%) was utilized for conscripted soldiers. 12.64784 billion Korean won (23.1%) was partially allocated to conscripted soldiers, whereas 6.6125 billion Korean won (12.1%) was fully directed towards career soldiers, with no funds assigned to conscripted soldiers.

Even when donations were allocated for conscripted soldiers, career soldiers typically received the largest share. At a military hospital, 165 sets of Hallabong tangerines, bought with 8.91 million Korean won in donations, were given to hospitalized soldiers, but only three sets went to enlisted personnel. Six sets were provided to non-commissioned officers, one set to a civilian employee, and the remaining 155 sets were taken by generals. One unit spent 10.52 million Korean won in donations on holiday gifts, giving Hanwoo beef sets valued at 125,000 Korean won each to 16 generals, average holiday gift sets worth 12,700 Korean won to officers, non-commissioned officers, and civilian employees, and average pizza and hamburger sets worth 10,000 Korean won to 80 enlisted soldiers.

Donations were also improperly used for restricted purposes. Instances involved choosing “model officers” from among career soldiers and providing each with 5 million South Korean won as incentive funds, offering 670,000 South Korean won per person for international travel expenses, spending 18.81 million South Korean won on workshop event costs, and distributing 19.2 million South Korean won in incentive funds to commanders for enduring training. In another instance, 6.7 million South Korean won in donations was utilized to buy hotel stay vouchers, buffet passes, golf club memberships, and department store gift cards, which were then given as prizes during a sports event among career soldiers.

The Audit and Inspection Board informed the Ministry of National Defense to “create guidelines for handling donations, ensuring that contributions received by each military service are utilized as intended by the donors, and to formulate a donation management strategy so that funds collected for soldiers are not unfairly directed towards certain groups but are distributed while taking into account the roles, duties, number of personnel, and unit features of each rank.”

In separate inspections carried out jointly by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Ministry of National Defense, and internal audit units of each military branch, many instances of soldiers neglecting security responsibilities were discovered. Several officials from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army, Navy, Air Force headquarters, and Marine Corps command were found leaving classified military documents (Level 2 or 3) on their desks after working hours, leaving encrypted devices connected to computers, or failing to secure document storage cabinets before departing, resulting in 52 warnings and 19 reprimands. Furthermore, 40 units had not retrieved public official IDs from 905 (33.7%) of 2,686 retired personnel, and 570 out of 9,761 officers and non-commissioned officers were given sick leave without providing necessary documentation, which required corrective actions.