4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Seoul City’s PB system is characterized by citizens’ participation in every step of the budgeting process, from project proposal to deliberation and decision-making, setting Seoul City’s PB system apart from others.
The PB ordinance stipulates the formation of the Participatory Budgeting Committee, which consists of 250 ordinary citizens chosen in consideration of their gender, age, and area of residence. The committee deliberates on the projects developed by citizens and prioritizes them. The final decisions are made by both citizens and the committee.
Especially noteworthy is that the PB process utilizes the “mVoting” mobile application, which aims to increase citizens’ direct participation in the budgeting process. Citizen mVoting was introduced in 2015, and over 110,000 people, accounting for over one percent of the total population of Seoul, have voted using the mobile voting system.
First and foremost, the success of Seoul City’s PB system can be attributed to its citizen-driven decision-making process and operation of related citizen participation programs.
Second, the capability of the participating citizens has contributed to its success as well. To foster such capability, Seoul City runs the Budget School to provide budgeting training for the members of the Participatory Budgeting Committee.
Third, civil servants in relevant departments participate in the subcommittee meetings and help citizens make good decisions by offering their opinions on the feasibility, efficiency, and propriety of funding.
Last but not least, Seoul City releases updates related to the PB system on its website (yesan.seoul.go.kr) on a regular basis and encourages citizen participation using the mVoting mobile application.
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5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Seoul City has been operating the PB system for six years, ever since the enactment of the PB ordinance in 2012. Also, each of the city’s 25 local districts has a local PB committee, which serves as a liaison between Seoul City and local residents.
Seoul City’s PB system is managed by the Planning and Coordination Office, which is responsible for drawing up and revising Seoul City’s work plans and functions as a general control center in relation to budgeting and legislation. The civil servants in charge of financial management in the Planning and Coordination Office provide administrative support for the PB process by deciding the budget to be allocated to PB projects, collecting project ideas developed by citizens, and preparing for subcommittee meetings.
The Participatory Budgeting Committee, which consists of 250 experts, representatives of civic organizations, and civil servants, is the highest decision-making body related to Seoul City’s PB system.
It could be said that the main beneficiaries of Seoul City’s PB system number at around 233,547 Seoul citizens, or roughly 2.3 percent of the population of Seoul, including members of the Participatory Budgeting Committee and citizens who proposed PB projects. After adding the number of people who have participated in electronic voting in the final stage of deciding the winning PB projects, the number of beneficiaries becomes far larger.
From a broader perspective, however, the actual beneficiaries of the PB system are all 10 million citizens of Seoul. By opening the closed-door process of fiscal decision-making to the public, Seoul’s PB system is a mechanism that makes participatory budgeting part of the fabric of grassroots democracy.
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6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The ultimate purpose of Seoul City’s PB system is to promote citizen engagement in the budgeting process. To that end, Seoul City holds discussions on how to improve the system early every year with the Participatory Budgeting Committee, civic organizations, and financial experts.
For this year’s PB management, Seoul City formed a financial democracy taskforce and held over 20 discussions to draw up plans for PB projects.
Any resident of Seoul is welcome to propose PB projects via the Internet, by mail, or in person over a period of 40 days from March to April every year.
The following is a summary of the process through which PB projects are prioritized:
1. Review of project feasibility by each relevant office in terms of legal, economic, and various other factors
2. Presentation by citizens who proposed projects and on-site inspections by citizens
3. Written reports on project feasibility, efficacy, and budget by civil servants in related areas
4. Evaluation of project feasibility, efficacy, and benefits through discussions and deliberative polls
5. Selection of top 30 percent of projects in each category at joint public-private meetings and prioritization of the projects in accordance with the evaluation by all Participatory Budgeting Committee members and a majority vote.
6. Final decisions made on project priorities based on the approval of the Participatory Budgeting Committee members (40 percent), mVoting (50 percent), and Budget School members (10 percent).
7. Follow-up monitoring of the PB projects by the Participatory Budgeting Committee to identify any budget waste and ensure the smooth implementation of the projects.
To promote the PB system, Seoul City formed a team of seven civil servants from the Planning and Coordination Office working in areas related to financial management, and tasked them with the operation and administration of the system.
There is also a budget team in each of the 25 local districts, the members of which include one or two civil servants in charge of the PB system who serve as liaisons to promote cooperation between Seoul City and the local district. In addition, Seoul City operates the Participatory Budgeting Committee, consisting of 250 citizens, and there is a local participatory budgeting committee in each of the 25 local districts.
Seoul City sets aside KRW 50 billion every year for the PB projects, which accounts for as much as 31.7 percent of the KRW 157.1 billion in available public funding, excluding uncontrollable expenditures and mandatory spending, in the citywide budget of KRW 27.5038 trillion (in 2016). Over the last five years, citizens have proposed 10,967 projects, requiring funding of KRW 3.2617 trillion (average of KRW 652.3 billion f 2,193 projects annually), and a total of KRW 240.6 billion has been spent so far for 1,993 PB projects.
It has been Park Won-soon, the mayor of Seoul, who has played the most decisive role in securing financial resources. The PB system was Mayor Park’s major by-election promise in terms of city finance in 2011. He began pursuing the PB system after he took office.
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7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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At the end of 2011, newly elected Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon pushed the enactment of an ordinance for the PB system. As the capital of Korea adopted its PB system rather late compared to other cities and provinces in Korea, the Seoul City Participatory Budgeting Network, consisting of 28 civic organizations, persistently demanded that legislation for a PB system be passed. In response, Seoul City formed an organic cooperative system with civic organizations and Seoul Metropolitan Council and engaged in discussions regarding the adoption of PB and, before the final enactment of the ordinance, held public hearings on its formulation.
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8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The greatest achievements of the PB system in Seoul City are that it has encouraged citizens to participate in the most closed-door process of fiscal decision-making, enhanced transparency in the management of public funds, helped identify the problems closely intertwined with citizens’ everyday lives, and thus improved financial democracy and secured taxpayers’ control over the budgeting process. Moreover, numerous projects have been proposed for underprivileged people and those who have fallen through the cracks of the traditional budgeting process. Also, the wide array of local projects developed by citizens to address the problems in their everyday lives has enhanced the self-sustainability of the local districts, which has in turn contributed to the sustainability of Seoul City’s PB system. The following is a list of the projects that have been proposed and prioritized by citizens.
1. Creation of Eunpyeong-gu Sharing Center (KRW 1.2 billion)
- The world’s first sharing center created through a participatory project proposed by a citizen in 2013. It won the grand prize at the 2015 Creative Seoul Awards in the Innovation category.
2. Jung-gu Safe Village for Women (KRW 230 million)
- This project was based on an idea proposed by students majoring in police administration at Dongguk University as a way of promote the safety of women when walking alone at night. It was chosen in 2015 and won the grand prize at the 1st Korean Crime Prevention Awards held by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and the daily newspapier Joongang Ilbo.
3. Seongbuk-gu Multicultural Library (KRW 340 million)
- Seoul City’s first multicultural library, opened in Seongbuk-gu, serves as an education center for the over 9,000 multicultural residents living in the Seongbuk-gu area. Through books, it aims to help local residents better understand diverse cultures and improve their communication skills.
4. Forest Book Bus in Ssangmun Park on Choansan Mountain, Dobong-gu (KRW 100 million)
- A children’s library run by local volunteer workers. A Dobong-gu-based bus company donated a large bus, which Dobong-gu remodeled to create the library.
5. Gwangjin-gu Toy Library (KRW 286 million)
- A toy library with over 600 toys that visitors can rent for up to two weeks. This project was chosen in 2015.
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9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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When Seoul City introduced the PB system, Seoul Metropolitan Council raised questions regarding the infringement of its exclusive right to vote on the budget. It therefore took a negative stance on the adoption of the PB system and the PB project budget was cut by 5.7% during the budget deliberations in 2012, the first year of the PB system.
In order to resolve the tension between Seoul Metropolitan Council and the Participatory Budgeting Committee, Seoul City has held hearings and discussions with Seoul Metropolitan Council every year since before drawing up the operational plans in order to build consensus with the council. As a result, the participatory project budget cut that was made by the council during the budget deliberations has been reduced considerably.
Another obstacle was the concern over the possibility of unfair budget allocations based on the subjective preferences of local districts or communities. Also, some local districts that were in relatively poor financial condition tended to think of the KRW 50 billion in funding allocated for PB projects as special financial resources intended for the projects they had long pursued.
In an effort to resolve this misconception, Seoul City selected 90 percent of the 250 members of the Participatory Budgeting Committee from among citizens who had applied to serve on the committee and the remaining 10 percent from among those who had been recommended by Seoul City and Seoul Metropolitan Council. Also, Seoul City has made the entire PB project prioritization process accessible to the public on its website and selected nine subcommittees, including the Health and Welfare Subcommittee, to deliberate on and revise it.
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