Board of Audit and Inspection, “Decreased access to medical care for soldiers in remote areas… Only 26% operate telemedicine”

Improper management of some military lands… Received commendation for budget reduction in ‘project integration promotion’

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Sang-hyun = An audit revealed that access to medical care for soldiers serving in remote areas has been reduced, with regular medicines such as antipyretics and painkillers not being properly supplied.

The Board of Audit and Inspection released the results of a regular audit of the Army Headquarters on the 9th.

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, the military can designate military units in remote areas as special locations in consultation with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and appoint soldiers from the medical unit as agents to handle medicines without pharmacists.

However, in reality, due to a shortage of medics and soldiers, 95 out of 366 units in remote areas (only 26%) were operating telemedicine.

The Board of Audit and Inspection explained that there were “disruptions to the unit’s mission performance, such as soldiers in remote areas not receiving timely medical treatment, and executives having to escort soldiers in their personal vehicles to receive treatment at private hospitals.”

In addition, in order to prevent arbitrary use, the Army Headquarters excluded digestive medicines and antipyretic and painkillers from the compulsory supply of supplies to units without military doctors in 2024.

Accordingly, the units requested resupply, but the supply was limited to only ointments, saying that handling medicines in units without medics and soldiers could be a violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.

Accordingly, the Board of Audit and Inspection decided to discuss with the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Health and Welfare to expand the scope of special location designation and agent qualifications.

In addition, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that there are concerns that the use of 4,396 parcels of land (book value equivalent to KRW 826.5 billion) for regional development, etc. may be restricted due to delay in the decision to terminate the use of unused military land or failure to hand it over to the Defense Facilities Headquarters.

In addition, a pledge was placed on long-term repair reserve accounts (81 accounts, 124.9 billion won) managed by private project operators without approval from the Defense Facilities Headquarters, or the reserves were incorrectly used for routine repairs, etc.

On the other hand, the Board of Audit and Inspection selected the Equipment Maintenance Management Department of the Army Headquarters Logistics Staff Department as the recipient of the award in recognition of its contribution to reducing the budget through active administration, such as integrating projects for equipment manufactured by the same company.

Last year, while promoting the 'Local Air Defense Radar' and 'Artillery Detection Radar II' projects, this department promoted them as integrated projects, unlike the precedent of pursuing contracts for each equipment, saving over 4.1 billion won in budget.