The Major Crimes Investigation Agency, created after the abolition of South Korea's prosecution service, will spend 120.4 billion won ($87 million) on securing office space alone in its first year of operation. The sum equals a quarter of its 450 billion won regular budget for next year, and critics say separating prosecutors who had used state-owned buildings is proving enormously costly, with the government tapping contingency funds to cover the bill.
According to materials the Ministry of the Interior and Safety submitted to the National Assembly on the 25th, the agency's office costs total 120.4 billion won, broken down by phase into 42.4 billion won for the headquarters and Seoul office, 68.7 billion won for the Busan, Daegu and Gwangju offices, and 9.3 billion won for the Daejeon and Suwon offices. Unlike the prosecution service, which mainly occupied state-owned buildings, the new agency is leasing privately owned buildings, citing investigative security among other reasons, generating separate office costs.
The headquarters and Seoul office, covered in the first phase, will occupy the Renaissance Square building in Seoul's Jung District. Rent and management fees, including value-added tax, come to 40.9 billion won a year. The lease runs five years, through 2031.
Among the regional offices, the Busan, Daegu and Gwangju offices were allocated the largest amount at 68.7 billion won. Those offices are also preparing to open in leased private buildings. The Daejeon and Suwon offices, by contrast, were grouped into a third phase and allocated 9.3 billion won, a relatively small budget.
The Suwon office in particular faces unavoidable additional costs in securing its premises. An initial plan to use the former Lotte Mart Yeongtong store fell through, so the office will move temporarily into the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation building before relocating again to Seongnam next year. Rent and management fees for the temporary site alone are estimated at about 2.5 billion won over 10 months.
The Daejeon office must also occupy a temporary site in the Sejong area before moving to a new building in Daejeon. The result is a structure in which the two offices with the smallest office budgets repeatedly move into temporary quarters and then relocate again. The Suwon office decided to move into a temporary site ahead of its opening, but time is short before it secures permanent premises.
The agency is set to launch on Oct. 2. The government plans to first prepare essential work space, then complete interior work and mechanical, electrical and firefighting construction in stages by the end of the year.
