Ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday to completely scrap special activity funds given out to lawmakers which amount to some six billion won every year.
Ruling Democratic Party(DP) Floor Leader Hong Young-pyo revealed he and his counterparts of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party(LKP) and the minor Bareunmirae Party reached the decision during a meeting chaired by National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang.
LKP Floor Leader Kim Sung-tae said he is relieved to be getting rid of an unfair aspect of society by abolishing the special activity funds.
The decision comes as the National Assembly came under criticism after a local civic group unveiled in July that ranking parliamentary leaders have each received some 60 million won worth of special activity funds every month, for which they didn't have to file receipts.
The disclosure of the funds’ usage, which has been given to lawmakers since 1994, was only made after a recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of a request by the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy to reveal how assembly members used the funds.