Public Institutions and Local Governments, Who Is Responsible for Unauthorized Pension Gas Accidents?

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] On the 25th, Lunar New Year’s Day, a gas explosion disaster occurred at an unauthorized pension in Donghae-si, Gangwon-do, raising concerns about the lax gas safety management system. Under current law, the Korea Gas Safety Corporation (KGSC) does not have the authority to conduct safety inspections, leaving local governments to effectively manage the facilities entirely on their own.

According to the government and industry on the 29th, under the current "Liquefied Petroleum Gas Safety Management and Business Act," the KGSC and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy do not have the authority to conduct gas safety inspections for households registered as general residences. The KGSC can only perform regular inspections on buildings registered as multi-use facilities such as lodging or food service businesses. Fire authorities also face difficulties in safety management. Under current law, if residents of buildings registered as general residences refuse, authorities do not have the right to conduct indoor inspections.

Due to these legal and manpower limitations, unless local governments pre-screen lodging operators registered as "general residences," experts cannot conduct safety inspections even if they want to. Currently, the only regular inspections performed are those conducted once a year by about 5,000 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales businesses. A gas industry official said, "The joint investigation team has not yet announced whether the cause of the accident will be determined as a gas leak or due to a butane burner, but ultimately, if local governments had properly managed the facilities regularly, suspicions of gas leaks from unregistered operators would not have spread this much."

Most gas explosion accidents are LPG explosions, and careless handling by those registered as "general residences" is a major cause. According to the "2018 Gas Accident Yearbook" published by the KGSC, out of 1,275 accidents that occurred over ten years from 2009 to 2018, 879 cases (68.9%) were LPG-related. Of all accidents, 400 cases (31.4%) were caused by user negligence. There is also a shortage of support personnel. According to Donghae-si, as of December 31 last year, 41,141 households were registered, but the KGSC’s safety inspection personnel in Gangwon-do number only 15.

Experts see two options: ▲ either revise the system so that the KGSC conducts regular safety inspections for households registered as "general residences," including unauthorized pensions, or ▲ strengthen investigations and punishment standards for unauthorized pension operators by local governments and investigative authorities. The latter is considered the more realistic approach. The KGSC estimates that to conduct regular safety inspections for households registered as general residences, personnel would need to increase by at least three to four times, which inevitably raises concerns about economic feasibility.

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