◀ anchor ▶
Officials in the Land Management Office under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport were found to have accepted bribes from subcontractors in return for overseeing poor construction work.
This is reporter Jeong-seok Jeong.
◀ Report ▶
In April, a car fire broke out in the Gajisan Tunnel in Ulju-gun, Ulsan.
At the time, the sprinkler inside the tunnel was not working and the fire receiver was also not working.
No cameras were installed to monitor the tunnel, but building permits were obtained.
When I looked at the company responsible for the repair and maintenance of fire fighting equipment in the tunnel, it was found to be an illegal subcontractor.
Officials of the land management office with administrative and supervisory authority took bribes and turned a blind eye to shoddy construction.
A total of 10 Jinyoung Land Management Office employees have been arrested or booked on bribery charges, including the on-site director.
It turns out that they introduced a certain subcontractor to the main contractor who had won the contract for the construction of the tunnel and the facilities they ordered and demanded a bribe.
There were 34 projects in the last two years, and the order amount alone was worth 7 billion won, but civil servants demanded 260 million won as a bribe, and actually took 60 million won.
One of the detained workers employed his family in a sub-contractor and received money and entertainment such as golf clubs.
In July, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Won Hee-ryong personally visited Jinyoung’s Land Management Office and warned of severe reprimands, but no inspection or disciplinary action has been taken so far.
[부산지방국토관리청 진영국토관리사무소 관계자]
“We haven’t talked about follow-up measures yet… We will see the results according to the results of this investigation…”
The police also booked 81 people, including officials from successful bidders and subcontractors who paid bribes, and asked the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to improve the system so that these companies can also be punished.
This is MBC News Jeong Jeong-seok.
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