Seocho-gu Construction Projects Over 100 Million Won: 'Design Change Advisory Committee' Plays Key Role in Budget Savings

District reviews unit price, quantity, and construction method appropriateness for design changes over 100 million KRW through a committee of 20 experts... Prevents excessive unfair design changes to eliminate budget waste and corruption, realizing clean administration... Saved about 43 million KRW in budget as of September, including 3 large-scale projects

Triangle Activities

Design Change Subcommittee

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Seocho-gu (Mayor Eunhee Jo) is receiving great response for the ‘Construction Design Change Advisory Committee,’ which has been expanded and implemented since early this year to promote a clean public service culture and budget savings.

The district’s ‘Construction Design Change Advisory Committee’ is a system independently introduced by Seocho-gu, expanding the scope to include construction projects with contract costs increased by more than 100 million KRW, where external members participate to ensure fair review.

The reason for introducing the advisory committee is to emphasize integrity administration in the construction sector, which is vulnerable to corruption, and to promote high-quality, well-finished construction by re-examining unavoidable design changes from a third-party perspective.

The advisory committee consists of 20 construction experts, including public engineers and cost analysts.

Comparing the operation of Seocho-gu’s ‘Construction Design Change Advisory Committee’ with the previous method, the district used to review design changes only when the contract cost increased by more than 20%. However, starting this year, Seocho-gu is the only district in Seoul to expand the scope to projects with contract cost increases of more than 100 million KRW.

Also, in the past, design change reviews for projects with increases over 100 million KRW were conducted solely by the supervising officer’s review. Now, external members participate through the advisory committee to review the application of design change unit prices, changed quantities, and appropriateness of construction methods, minimizing errors and irregularities in design changes.

As a result, as of September, the district has achieved budget savings of approximately 43 million KRW across three large-scale projects: the ‘Bangbae Area Women and Family Facility New Construction,’ ‘Yangjae Public Parking Lot New Construction,’ and ‘Bangbae Forest Library Construction.’

In addition, the district expects that preventing excessive and unjust design changes will not only avoid budget waste but also greatly contribute to improving integrity by preemptively blocking irregularities that may arise among project stakeholders.

One committee member participating in the design change advisory committee said, “We are seeing various effects such as securing transparency in design changes that inevitably occur during construction, reducing the possibility of problems, and ensuring construction quality,” adding, “We expect this to help Seocho-gu’s budget savings and clean administration.”

Along with this, the district is promoting various projects to improve integrity in the construction sector. Since early this year, it has been operating the Clean Triangle, which directly listens to voices from the field, such as difficulties faced by construction site agents or company representatives, and as of September, it has heard opinions from 82 construction sites.

Also, at every construction contract, the district sends integrity text messages to construction companies to report any irregularities by public officials during contract and completion, and sends integrity letters during holidays.

Seocho-gu Mayor Eunhee Jo stated, “As the integrity catchphrase says, ‘The integrity I keep protects me,’ we will continue to discover and implement various tasks to establish a culture of integrity throughout administration.”

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