SH Corporation: "No Employees or Employee Families Suspected of Land Speculation in 10 Years"

Investigation on Compensation Status for 1,531 Employees Across 14 Project Districts
4 Employee Family Members Reported to Have Received Compensation
1 Cleared of Charges, 1 Low Possibility but Under Fact-Checking
2 Demoted Following 2019 Investigation

[Asia Economy Reporter Onyu Lim] Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH Corporation) announced on the 11th that there were no employees or their family members found to have speculated on land in the corporation’s project districts over the past 10 years.

Following recent speculation allegations involving employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH Corporation) in Gwangmyeong-Siheung, SH Corporation conducted a comprehensive survey from the 4th to the 10th targeting 1,531 employees and 4,484 family members to check for any land compensation. The survey covered 14 project districts implemented by SH Corporation since 2010.

As a result of the investigation, a total of four family members of employees (one for land, three others) received compensation. However, it was confirmed that one person had no suspicion as the compensation was for inherited land before joining the company, and one person showed low suspicion but is still under fact verification. The remaining two were already severely disciplined (demotion) following an internal investigation in 2019 for submitting false farming documents, SH Corporation stated.

This investigation was conducted under the supervision of SH Corporation’s Audit Office. It involved cross-checking compensation records with the names and birthdates of employees and their immediate family members registered in the personnel system to determine whether they received land or fixture compensation in the 14 project districts implemented since 2010.

SH Corporation stated that, unlike the LH case where large-scale land-for-land compensation was a major cause of corruption, such compensation was absent in all but some parcels in the Segok 2 district among the 14 project districts surveyed.

Kim Seyong, President of SH Corporation, said, "After encountering the LH case, although we were not subject to the government investigation, we proactively conducted a full survey of the corporation’s project districts to dispel public suspicion. Since 2018, improvements to the compensation system and frequent inspections seem to have effectively prevented compensation corruption." He added, "We will continue to prioritize integrity as the highest value in managing the organization to enhance fairness and transparency, and make every effort to remain a corporation trusted by the public."

Meanwhile, SH Corporation plans to implement four institutional improvement measures to prevent fraudulent cases related to compensation in advance. The improvement measures include a ‘prior reporting system for land transactions within development districts,’ a ‘one-strike-out’ policy for detecting speculative acts using development information, mandatory ‘employee asset registration,’ and mandatory submission of ‘consent forms for the use of personal information of employees’ family members in development and compensation fields.’

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