Joo Sang-hyun, Gwangsan District Councilor in Gwangju, Raises Suspicion of Favoring a Specific Company with Work Allocation

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jo Sanghyun, a member of the Gwangsan District Council in Gwangju Metropolitan City, pointed out the waste of public funds due to Gwangsan District awarding contracts to specific companies.

According to the Gwangsan District Council in Gwangju on the 16th, Councilor Jo criticized the purchasing practices of printing services for local tax payment notices and the suspicion of favoritism toward specific companies during a 5-minute free speech at the first plenary session of the 255th regular meeting held the previous day.

Councilor Jo stated, “Gwangsan District spends tens of millions of won annually for issuing various local tax and penalty notices, but it has been purchasing and using these services under 2 million won without bidding or even private contracts,” adding, “The department in charge is splitting the amounts for administrative convenience and awarding contracts to specific companies.”

He continued, “Although the department is obligated to obtain security pledges and confidentiality agreements regarding the use and disposal of the local government seal printed on the notices when providing it to companies, they failed to comply until I requested the documents, after which they supplemented the paperwork,” emphasizing, “Security management required during the contract process was not observed.”

He added, “At my request, when the contract was switched to an open bidding process, the printing cost per sheet was reduced by 12% to 32 won,” and criticized, “The department responsible for tax affairs wasted taxpayers’ money by failing to break away from the practice of purchasing without bidding or private contracts.”

Along with this, Councilor Jo requested a responsible apology from the district mayor regarding the selection of the Gwangsan District treasury bank.

Councilor Jo said, “The department in charge not only handles revenue tasks but also important duties such as selecting the district treasury bank, but due to a breach of fairness by leaking the list of review committee members, it became embroiled in a lawsuit,” adding, “The team leader of the department has been suspended from duty, and the section chief is under witness investigation, raising doubts about whether the administration is functioning properly.”

He went on, “It was surprising that Kookmin Bank, which participated in the re-announcement for the district treasury bank selection, submitted 3.7 billion won in cooperative project funds, four times more than Gwangju Bank, but was not selected,” criticizing, “There has been no explanation or apology from the Gwangsan District Mayor regarding the approximately 2 billion won in cooperative project funds lost by Kookmin Bank over the year due to the lawsuit, re-announcement, and re-selection, as well as Nonghyup’s free riding for a year.”

Finally, he said, “Although a lawsuit was filed wasting tens of millions of won in public funds, it was lost, causing enormous damage such as administrative resource waste, but there has been no punishment for the responsible department heads or a responsible apology from the Gwangsan District Mayor,” urging, “I hope they show responsibility through a precise explanation and apology for the waste of public funds and administrative mistakes.”

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