Rule of Law Daily News As the second largest “quasi-market” public enterprise in Korea, the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) has recently been exposed to a bean curd dregs project scandal, involving multiple communities, causing widespread protests from the president to the public. anger. It is reported that LH’s bean curd dregs project is inseparable from the bad habits of the Korean construction industry.
Cut corners lead to collapse accident
In April this year, the underground parking lot of Qiandan Apartment in Incheon City, South Korea, collapsed due to cutting corners in steel bars. Since then, a large number of other apartment projects contracted by LH have also been exposed to have the same problem. On July 30, the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism announced the results of a comprehensive investigation of 91 apartment projects contracted by LH.
This comprehensive investigation confirmed that among the 91 apartment projects contracted by LH, 15 had the problem of cutting corners in steel reinforcement, and they were shabby projects. Among them, 10 places did not design enough steel bars to support the load at the design stage, and another 5 places, although the design was in place, “missed” the steel bars during the construction process. In other words, from design, construction to supervision, the whole process is full of illegal operations.
For this reason, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yue presided over a state affairs meeting on August 1. Regarding the issue of cutting corners in the apartment project contracted by LH, he stated that the crux of the current Korean construction industry vested interests colluding with each other and “small circles” must be broken. circle.
Yin Xiyue also instructed relevant departments to start investigating the apartment project and its underground parking lot that were accused of bean curd projects as soon as possible. Yin Xiyue said that from the accident, it can be seen that the design, construction, supervision and management of the project showed loopholes. “The government opposes the establishment of small circles. If the circle of interests and corruption is not broken, any innovation and reform will have no way out.”
Relevant persons in the South Korean Presidential Office pointed out that the vested interest groups and “small circles” repeatedly mentioned by Yin Xiyue refer to the problem of interest exchange in the process of hiring LH retired and resigned employees, that is, LH staff provide convenience for related companies when they are on the job. After I retire or leave my job, I will work in this company and help it to undertake the projects that LH is in charge of. After subcontracting the project, LH “turned a blind eye” to the bad design and inadequate supervision of the company that brought in former employees. This “small circle” of the Korean construction industry and the collusion of vested interests are also known as the bad habit of “former officials’ courtesy” in the construction industry.
According to the analysis of 536 labor contracts and 290 construction project management bids in LH from 2015 to 2020 by the Korean civic group “Citizens Alliance for Economic Justice Practice”, 47 companies that hired former LH employees contracted 55.4% of all LH projects. (297 cases), accounting for 69.4% of the total contract value of LH.
According to the statistics of the “Citizens Alliance for Economic Justice Practice”, among the 15 apartment projects found to have cut corners in steel bars, 13 employed LH’s retired and resigned employees, and 8 of them were employed by LH’s retired and resigned employees. The supervision company conducts supervision.
Ineffective punishment is difficult to break the chain of interests
South Korea’s “Chosun Ilbo” published an editorial, criticizing the bad practice of “former officials’ courtesy” in the construction industry, saying that this is a corrupt act that seriously threatens the lives of the people.
The media also pointed out that it is difficult to completely cut off the “chain” of collusion between vested interests simply by imposing a mild punishment of shutting down the design and construction companies for several months. Therefore, relevant departments must conduct a thorough investigation.
A number of South Korean media have mentioned in their reports that in January last year, a serious collapse occurred during the construction of the IPARK apartment building in Gwangju City. The reason was that the construction party illegally poured concrete to shorten the construction period and save costs. There is a strange phenomenon in the Korean construction industry. Behaviors such as cutting corners and blindly shortening the construction period are whitewashed as “cost saving”.
The media further pointed out that if the “safety paralysis” that is common in the Korean construction industry is not eliminated, the collapse accidents caused by tofu projects will continue to be staged again and again.
Those whose interests have been damaged can defend their rights and terminate the contract
In the face of criticism one after another, on August 2, LH announced the establishment of the “Fair Construction Promotion Headquarters in the Anti-monopoly Circle”, emphasizing that it will eliminate “former officials’ courtesy” from design, review, contract signing, construction, building materials, supervision and other construction processes. “Bad habits, improper involvement of interests, internal and external collusion, etc.
LH also explained to the public that it has tried many times to stop the bad practice of “former officials’ courtesy” and has taken many measures, but they have not achieved significant results.
After the case of LH employees using internal information to speculate in land in 2021, LH has launched an innovative plan to increase the number of restricted executives after retirement from the current 7 executives to 529 senior executives; conduct regular monitoring, and entrust the police if any improper behavior is found Investigation: expand the scope of property declaration objects from 7 executives to all employees, and conduct a real estate transaction investigation on them every year. However, judging from the actual effect, these measures have not shaken the deep-rooted bad habit of “pre-official courtesy” in the construction industry.
On August 2, the South Korean government and the ruling party, the National Power Party, stated that they would promote compensation for residents who have already moved into such apartments and give contracted residents the right to terminate the contract.
In addition, the South Korean government plans to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the apartment projects contracted by LH in the whole of Korea, to confirm which ones have bean curd projects, and to complete all investigations by the end of next month. With regard to the 15 apartment projects contracted by LH which confirmed that there were problems this time, “the reinforcement work will be completed quickly.” At the same time, the person in charge will be punished, and the occupants will be negotiated with representatives to compensate the occupants accordingly, and the non-occupants will be given the right to terminate the contract.
At the same time, the National Power Party will also form a “Truth Finding Task Force on Bad Construction” to conduct investigations, and will push Congress to conduct special state affairs investigations if necessary.
The National Power Party also plans to promote the revision and legislation of laws such as the “Basic Law on Construction Industry”, “Judicial Police Law”, and “Trade Union Law” in the National Assembly.
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2023-08-06 23:19:00
