Court Orders "LH to Disclose Construction Cost Details and Other Information"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The court has ruled that the Korea Land and Housing Corporation's (LH) decision to withhold information related to apartment construction costs was unlawful.

On the 11th, according to the legal community, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 7 (Chief Judge Kim Gukhyun) partially ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a representative of the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) against LH, demanding the cancellation of the refusal to disclose information.

Previously, in April 2019, CCEJ requested disclosure of information regarding the design construction cost statements, contract details, subcontract details, and comparison tables between primary and subcontractors for about 10 LH complexes, but the requests were denied and the appeals were dismissed, leading to the lawsuit.

However, the court ruled that "the information in question does not fall under the non-disclosure categories stipulated by the Information Disclosure Act." It stated, "Audits, supervision, and inspections of construction contracts are generally conducted based on various specifications or design drawings," and "even if the design construction cost statements, which are the basic data for construction costs, and the contract details containing unit prices per construction process calculated by primary and subcontractors are disclosed, it is difficult to see that it would affect the audit, supervision, and inspection of construction contracts."

Furthermore, the court said, "If the information is disclosed, it can secure transparency in the process of calculating construction costs and serve as an effective means to prevent the adverse effects caused by administrative convenience and abuse of authority by public institutions, thereby providing an opportunity to enhance trust in public institutions' housing policies."

However, the court dismissed CCEJ's request regarding some subcontract details and comparison tables between primary and subcontractors, stating that there is no sufficient evidence to consider that LH holds such information.

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