The Finance Ministry on Monday vowed to strengthen its crackdown on state-run institutions that provide fabricated spending reports.

Starting next year, the ministry decided to implement “microscopic investigations” to root out the inaccurate spending reports on a variety of areas, including investment, income statements and balance sheets. According to the ministry, a total of 124 public institutions, or 4 out of 10 public institutions, have cooked their financial reports.

The Finance Ministry also claimed that false or inappropriate welfare spending for employees – financial aid for children’s education, housing, weddings and funerals -- took place at most of the public institutions that were subject to investigation this year.

Under current regulations, Finance Ministries impose the same level of demerits to the culpable institutions, regardless of degree or intent.

Once the stronger investigation policy goes into effect, the ministry plans to impose penalties based on the institution’s intentions and degree of damages.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)