Park Hong-keun says 2026 marks first year of integrated fiscal review, with 901 projects cut or merged

Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-keun said Friday that this year marks the inaugural year of the integrated fiscal project performance evaluation, with a meaningful outcome: 36.2 percent of all assessed projects — 901 in total — were subject to budget cuts, consolidation or abolition.

Park made the remarks at a luncheon meeting with evaluation panel members held in Jung-gu, Seoul, adding that the figure represents the highest rate on record and more than double the 15.8 percent share of underperforming projects identified through self-assessments over the past five years.

The luncheon was organized to gather on-the-ground feedback from the evaluation panels that carried out this year's inaugural integrated fiscal project performance review, which covered 2,487 fiscal projects, and to discuss directions for improving the system.

Park said the evaluation "will serve as an important first step in strengthening the efficiency and accountability of fiscal management from the public's perspective and laying the groundwork for performance-oriented fiscal operations." He added that performance reviews function as "a compass for verifying how efficiently national finances are working for people's lives — going beyond a simple process of checking individual projects."

Park also urged panel members to work together on ways to ensure the objectivity, expertise and accountability of evaluations and to make feedback from results more effective. "No matter how good a system's intent, it has failed if it does not work in practice," he said.

Panel members at the meeting shared the difficulties they faced in reviewing a large number of projects within a tight timeframe. They also called for the adoption of group evaluation methods — such as joint reviews to enhance fairness and expertise — and the establishment of an online record management system.

Participants agreed that the feedback mechanism needs to be strengthened so that evaluation results translate into meaningful spending restructuring and project improvements.

Park said the ministry would take a hard look at the entire first-year process of the integrated evaluation, including the issues raised Friday, and refine the system further by incorporating feedback from the field.

The ministry plans to gather comprehensive input from the evaluation panels and other participants to establish guidelines for next year's integrated fiscal project performance evaluation by the end of this year.