There was a case in Ulsan where a manager-level employee who was in charge of facility construction and budget at the police station was released from his position and even under investigation following a whistleblower that he was suspected of collusion with a company.
The prosecution, who took over the case with the opinion of indictment, recently released the results of the investigation, and there were no criminal charges.
It turned out that the police officer, who was dismissed from his position and received an investigation, found out the internal corruption and saved the budget.
A police officer who covered up the matter to be investigated and rather investigated the employee who discovered the corruption.
Reporter Cha Sang-eun followed the case.
[기자]
Police Officer A, who has been working mainly in the budget work of the police.
However, as he became the subject of investigation in December of last year, his position was dismissed and he has not been able to go to work for over ten months.
The family of Kyung-Jung A filed a national petition to the Blue House saying that she was not a corrupt police officer and appealed to reveal the truth, but the police believed that they had a close relationship with the company and have been investigating.
However, after 10 months of taking over the case, the prosecution came to a conclusion of acquittal due to insufficient evidence.
According to the prosecution’s judgment, Police Officer A is being investigated as a corrupt police officer by his colleagues without any clear evidence.
YTN traced the background of the case of A, which was concluded to be innocent.
In February of last year, Police Officer A, who was appointed as the head of the Ulsan Southern Police Station, discovered a strange part while examining the construction estimate that came in during his predecessor.
It was an estimate sent by a company in Ulsan that was in charge of waterproofing the arsenal, but it was confirmed that the construction area and amount were inflated.
[A 경정 / 울산경찰청(직위해제) : 담당 부서가 가져온 견적서를 확인해보니까 평수가 너무 부풀려져 있어서 객관성을 유지하기 위해서 경찰서와 거래한 업체 말고, 새로운 업체를 참여시켜서 견적을 다시 받아본 거죠.]
Gyeongjeong A, who had stopped the construction contract, conducted a competitive bid at the lowest price instead of a private contract, and a company in Busan was selected and the construction was completed.
In order to check whether the words of Gyeongjeong A are true, we obtained construction estimates from two companies and compared them.
The construction area submitted by the Ulsan company, which had signed a contract, was 196㎡.
The construction cost is said to be 8.21 million won.
A Busan company that participated in the competitive bidding offered a construction cost of 4.26 million won for 136 square meters, the same as the actual area.
[당시 공사 참여 업체 : 가로 곱하기 세로 하면 면적이 나오잖아요. 도면상에 명확하게 면적이 있어요. 담당자가 그 면적을 불러줬거든요.]
If there was no confirmation from A, the construction would have been carried out according to the estimate submitted by the existing company by inflating the area.
Judge A’s claim is that after discovering that the construction cost was inflated, the construction was carried out at the lowest bid instead of a private contract with a specific company, and that the poorly operated cafeteria was also normalized to save the budget.
In the meantime, opinions came out only to investigate construction companies suspected of taking extortion, but it was understood that the intention was to cover up the past.
Even after discovering the circumstances of corruption, there has not been a fact-finding investigation into past contracts, let alone an investigation.
However, not long after, suspicions were raised that Police Officer A was collusion with a Busan company that was in charge of the construction, and some employees internally complained that Police Officer A had insulted their personality.
In the end, police officer A was transferred to another police station in October of last year.
A month later, he was converted into a suspect, starting with a search and seizure of his home and office, and had to withdraw his hands from all work.
In response, the Ulsan Police Agency said that it could not give specific details to the outside because the disciplinary procedure for police officer A is in progress.
This is YTN Cha Sang-eun.
[앵커]
Police officer A, who was released from the charge of corruption after the prosecution’s investigation, is still in a state of dismissal, awaiting the decision of the disciplinary committee to be held soon.
He is known to have spoken rudely to his subordinates or to be suspected of inappropriate conduct on the job, which is said to be retaliation by the police organization for uncovering internal corruption.
Next is reporter Kim Jong-ho.
[기자]
In November of last year, the Ulsan Police Agency began a forced investigation into Police Officer A, who served as the head of the Ulsan Southern Police Station.
The allegations are violation of the so-called ‘Kim Young-ran Act’, which allegedly leaked information related to the budget of the police station to the outside, and that he received a free use ticket from a gym that had a business agreement with the police station.
Homes, offices, cell phones, and police officers’ accounts were searched and confiscated, and construction companies suspected of collusion were also put on the line of investigation.
[당시 공사 업체 관계자 : 사무실 컴퓨터 6~7대 전체를 다 뒤지고, 일도 안되고 아무것도 안 되고 회사가 마비됐었죠.]
However, unlike the police, who handed over the police officer A to the prosecution with the opinion of indictment, the prosecution decided not to charge and finished the investigation at the end of last month.
Looking at the prosecution’s decision not to prosecute, there is no evidence to substantiate the charges of Police Officer A.
Contrary to the claims of the police, it was revealed that police officer A did not send photos containing the budget details to a company suspected of collusion, and there is no circumstance to suspect that he communicated using another cell phone.
The prosecution’s judgment is that the free use of the gym for employee welfare does not fall under the Kim Young-ran Act.
As a result, there was no investigation into the inflating of the construction estimate found by Inspector A, but only the suspicions raised by some employees about Inspector A.
Inside the police, opinions are coming out that it is not an investigation and retaliation against Police Officer A, who uncovered internal corruption.
[경찰 관계자 : 금액을 부풀려서 자기네들이 이득을 취해야 하는데 그런 것을 하지 못하니까, A 경정을 쳐내기 위해 작업을 하지 않았나….]
The Ulsan Police Agency plans to hold a disciplinary committee for police officer A in the near future to determine the level of disciplinary action regardless of the results of the investigation.
Even if it is not a criminal charge, there is still the possibility of making inappropriate remarks toward employees or determining that there was a problem with the job.
[울산 남부경찰서 관계자 : (A 경정이) 과정과 절차를 무시한 상태에서 자기 위주로만 끌고 가는 것 자체도 직원들, 밑에 일하는 사람들을 허탈하게 만들고 (그래서 감사실에 연락한 것이죠.)]
Police Officer A said that if even one of the allegations raised were found to be true, he would leave the police without any regrets.
As this incident revealed loopholes and irregularities in the private contract construction of the police station, it is also pointed out that higher-level agencies need to inspect and investigate the situation.
This is YTN Kim Jong-ho.
YTN Cha Sang-eun (chase@ytn.co.kr)
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