Results of the Korea Sports Council’s ‘misconduct inspection’… A total of 8 people were requested to investigate
Demand payment of expenses in exchange for a position at the Paris Olympics
Lee Ki-heung, president of the Korea Sports Council, attends the National Assembly audit of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul on the afternoon of the 22nd and examines data. 2024.10.22. News 1 Suspicion was raised that Lee Ki-heung, President of the Korea Sports Council, unfairly ordered a relaxation of qualification requirements in order to select his children’s friends during the recruitment process for the Jincheon National Team Athlete’s Village.
The Office for Government Policy Coordination’s ‘Government Joint Public Service Inspection Team’ announced the results of the inspection of the Korea Sports Council, which included the above, this afternoon and announced that it would request the National Investigation Headquarters to investigate eight people, including Chairman Lee.
The inspection team received information on irregularities related to the Korea Sports Council and deployed six investigators for one month starting on the 8th of last month to conduct an on-site inspection.
The inspection team announced that various charges of misconduct were revealed at the sports club, including △ fraudulent hiring of employees (obstruction of business) △ private use of sponsorship items (embezzlement) △ requests for sponsorship of goods (acceptance of money, etc., third-party bribery) △ waste of budget (breach of trust).
According to the inspection team, there is a suspicion that Chairman Lee forced the hiring of Mr. A, his child’s college friend, through unfair instructions when recruiting employees for the National Representative Seonchochon in 2022.
The position initially had national team experience and level 2 professional sports instructor qualifications as application requirements.
However, it was found that Chairman Lee delivered Mr. A’s resume to Mr. B, a high-ranking official at the athletes’ village, and also ordered three recruiters to relax the qualifications on several occasions.
In addition, Chairman Lee was found to have ignored an internal report that the annual salary would have to be adjusted downward if the qualification requirements were relaxed, and replaced the head of the hiring department who opposed the relaxation of the requirements. There was also a statement that Chairman Lee repeatedly used severe profanity and verbal abuse for about an hour when receiving an internal report.
In the end, a recruitment notice was posted on August 9, 2022, with all national team experience and leadership qualifications deleted, and Mr. A was finally hired.
Mr. B, who received the resume from Chairman Lee, participated as an interview committee member and gave Mr. A the highest score among the applicants.
In addition, the inspection team raised suspicions of embezzlement, saying there were circumstances in which the Korea Sports Council used sponsorship items for personal purposes.
Around April 2018, the Sports Council allocated a total of 63 million won worth of items, including 20 mobile phones, from the Pyeongchang Olympics marketing profits to the president’s office. Afterwards, 14 mobile phones (worth 17 million won) were given to acquaintances without recording them in the distribution ledger.
Chairman Lee took the items, saying they would be given to people involved in international sports, but it was not confirmed who actually received them.
There are also suspicions that the Sports Council brought shoes and sunglasses worth 35 million won worth of sponsorship items allocated to other departments between July 2021 and February 2024 to the president’s office and used 16 million won worth of them directly or provided them to visitors.
In addition, the inspection team determined that there was a possibility of breach of trust in the fact that the Sports Council violated procedures by pre-purchasing tickets worth 187 million won in the process of operating the Paris Olympics observation group and did not refund tickets that were no longer needed (worth 32.15 million won).
Furthermore, the inspection team obtained a statement that Mr. C, a high-ranking official at the National Athletes’ Village, requested Mr. D, the president of a sports organization, to pay for the cost of purchasing health food and competition uniforms for athletes, with the approval of Chairman Lee.
Mr. D, who is known to be a long-time friend of Chairman Lee, conveyed to Chairman Lee early this year that he would like to take on a key position related to the Paris Olympics. Mr. D, who expressed his intention to pay in April of this year, actually took the position he had hoped for and paid the cost of purchasing goods worth about 80 million won in August of the same year.
In addition, the inspection team decided to notify the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of 11 people, including 7 subject to investigation, for other violations of regulations, such as Chairman Lee’s abusive language toward employees and inappropriate execution of business expenses.
(Seoul = News 1)
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