The Cost of it all PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ed   
While we are confused by the low numbers so far. We will just have to wait for an official release of the stats. Lets make a call at 200 Contractors being denied. It could be much higher, because we have seen people we never thought would make it through the review process, and those with a solid legit case get the boot. The general guestimate is a 5-10% rate of denial. The Stars and Stripes article referenced 12 Individuals (which would then include their families) were denied out of the first 1,000. Surprisingly, S&S was able to locate and get comments from almost all 12. Thats not a hack on S&S. We are sure they did talk to those people, we just believe there are a LOT more than 12 people that were denied at that time. We knew 12 people that were in this situation before the article even came out, so we are thinking it may be just a bit higher. With 4,000 Contractors, you can cut these numbers in half if you like, and still be able to buy Neverland Ranch and a bowl of chips.
  • 200 X 20,000 USD = 4 MILLION taxpayer dollars. The cost of shipping 200 US Citizens and their families along with household goods from the Republic of Korea to the U.S.A.
  • 200 X 20,000 USD = 4 MILLION taxpayer dollars. The cost of shipping 200 US Citizens and their families along with household goods from the U.S.A. to the Republic of Korea.  
  • 200 X 80-100,000 = 16 MILLION taxpayer dollars. This is the cost of attaining a security clearance. Not to mention the time needed (generally more than a year) to get that new clearance.
  • 200 X 25,000 USD = 5 MILLION taxpayer dollars. That's 3 months salary paid to the employee while he is coming up to speed and not yet productive . Of course, the years of experience attained by the former personnel will take, well, YEARS to get back to the previous level of proficiency.

  • 200 X 7,000 USD = 1.4 MILLION taxpayer dollars. This is believed to be the cost of getting a person into the system. ID Cards (they are a LOT more expensive than I thought) and BIDS enrollment, Ration Control and background check, vehicle inspection and registration, USFK drivers license, and a few other things. The 200 number would increase with the number of family members accompianing the sponsor. You can leave this off the list if you wish until we can verify the numbers.

We are now around 30 MILLION dollars or so, and are sure there are additional costs involved. Of course, there is the distinct possibility that some people will find out that Korea just isn’t their cup of tea. Most of the people who had their SOFA canned WANTED to be in Korea and that offered stability for the ROK, US and the Employee. Don’t forget that the people coming over to Korea will be demanding FULL Command support. We can add another few MILLION dollars to cover the cost of Full Housing, JTR, COLA, DoDD's for their children, and a lot of other acronyms that mean a lot of money. They are not going to make the trip half way around the world for 25-75% of their entitlement. We can comfortably add a few million there as well. Many people that were in place accepted a percentage as a trade off.

  • 200 X 20-30,000  = 4-6 MILLION to up the support.

35 MILLION so far as a direct result of people loosing their status. The sole entity that approves/denies SOFA status is CCK. Korean Immigration has no problem WHATSOEVER with anyone that currently has SOFA. If you have a tourist VISA, Korean Immigration says you are a tourist. If you have a residency VISA, Korean Immigration says you are a resident. Once again, this is the office that approved everyone initially, and the same office that now says they are not responsible for their previous determinations of status.