Starting April, Facilities Safety Inspection Negligent Companies Will Be 'Expelled'

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] In the future, if a safety inspection specialized agency performs facility safety inspections negligently, administrative measures including cancellation of registration up to the maximum extent will be possible.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 6th that the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the "Special Act on the Safety and Maintenance of Facilities" (Facility Safety Act), which includes such content, will be enforced from April. This measure follows the promulgation of the newly revised Facility Safety Act on the 7th.

Until now, when a safety inspection specialized agency conducted negligent inspections, penalties such as business suspension for 1 to 3 months were imposed. However, as criticisms about continuous negligent inspections have arisen, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has taken steps to ensure effectiveness in this regard.

Through this amendment, business suspension penalties can be extended up to 6 months, and cancellation of registration is also possible. Additionally, the criticism that penalties were not differentiated between cases where safety inspections were partially insufficient and cases where they were generally poor has been accepted, and penalties have been differentiated into very poor, poor, and insufficient. Accordingly, the previous method of imposing a 1-month business suspension for one instance of negligence and a 3-month suspension for two instances has been strengthened to 3 months for one instance of very poor, 6 months for two instances, and cancellation of registration for three instances.

Along with this, subcontracting in the field of safety inspections using new technologies will also be permitted. Currently, subcontracting is allowed only for certain specialized technologies, but it will now be permitted for external inspections and video analysis utilizing construction new technologies or inspection robots. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to actively utilize 4th Industrial Revolution technologies in the field of safety inspections through this measure.

A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official stated, "With this amendment to the Enforcement Decree, we expect that negligent inspections will be prevented and 4th Industrial Revolution technologies will be activated in the field of facility safety inspections, leading to substantial and advanced safety inspections of facilities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.