[단독] Badminton team received 300 million won worth of contracts with taxpayer money and even took bribes from executives

It was confirmed that the Korean Badminton Association violated the ‘competitive bidding’ guidelines and signed a private contract worth 300 million won with a specific company in the process of preparing for the BWF (Badminton World Federation) Championships. The company in question is a company that has received ‘exclusive sponsorship rights’. During the sponsorship process, it was also revealed that the association’s executives received tens of millions of won in performance bonuses. They entered into illegal contracts using large amounts of government subsidies and even took unfair profits.

The Korean Badminton Association inside the Olympic Hall in Songpa-gu, Seoul. /News 1

According to data submitted by People Power Party lawmaker Jeong Yeon-wook, a member of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee of the National Assembly, from the Korea Badminton Association (hereinafter referred to as the Association) on the 22nd, the association signed a contract with badminton equipment company YONEX Korea ahead of the BWF World Senior Badminton Championships in September last year. ‘ signed a sponsorship contract with

The contract stipulates that ▲the association must exclusively purchase supplies worth 297.5 million won, including players’ game uniforms, referee uniforms, court mats, and 2,000-ball competition balls, from Yonex, and ▲the association has the right to promote such things as ‘exposure of the Yonex brand logo’ and ‘marking as a competition sponsor’. ▲Yonex will deposit 300 million won in sponsorship money into the association’s account before the competition is held and provide various equipment such as shuttlecocks needed for the competition.

In this process, Mr. Kim, the association’s executive director, received 30 million won from the association for ‘contributing to attracting sponsors.’ According to Rep. Jeong, the company initially rejected Mr. Kim’s ‘request for sponsorship.’ However, as these demands continued, 300 million won was eventually donated, and Mr. Kim received 10% of the deposit as a kind of sales performance bonus.

In accordance with the National Treasury Subsidy Integrated Management Guidelines (Article 21), when concluding a contract for goods or services exceeding 20 million won, it must be entrusted to the Director of the Public Procurement Service or the head of a local government or submitted to public bidding through the ‘Nara Marketplace’ (National Comprehensive Electronic Procurement System). . Additionally, according to the Association’s Articles of Incorporation (Article 24) and Code of Conduct (Article 27), executives cannot receive compensation or receive money or valuables from people related to their duties. The association gave preferential treatment to sponsors through taxes, and high-ranking officials pocketed money that went against the articles of incorporation.

In the sports world, this practice has been problematic several times. Last month, controversy arose when it was revealed that the association signed a contract with a specific shoe company without competitive bidding and refused Ahn Se-young’s request to change shoes. The Korea Sports Council also became a problem due to the ‘negotiable contract with a sponsor worth 30 billion won’. Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Yoo In-chon said at the National Assembly audit on the 24th of last month, “The exclusive purchase preference is wrong to avoid the National Contract Act and take advantage,” and “We must apologize to the people.”

Rep. Jeong Yeon-wook said, “This is an incident in which the association provided Yonex with the preferential treatment of exclusive supply of items and embezzled 10% of the donations,” adding, “It is a violation of the law and a socially unacceptable act.” “He must receive appropriate punishment.”