"Deceptive 'Label Switching' in Public Institutions... Public Procurement Service: 'Suppliers Banned from Bidding'"

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] A clothing supplier that deceived public institutions by relabeling products and delivering them has been caught and will be barred from participating in public market bids for a certain period.

According to the Public Procurement Service on the 9th, Company A, based in Daejeon, was caught for fraudulently supplying goods worth approximately 3.6 billion KRW to public institutions nationwide since 2017.

Company A is accused of signing direct production contracts with local governments and national agencies, then importing clothing products from Vietnam and delivering them while falsely representing them as domestically produced.

The method involved removing the origin labels from the imported clothing products and disguising them as domestic goods.

In relation to this, the Public Procurement Service has decided to restrict Company A's eligibility to participate in public procurement market bids for six months starting from the 12th. The bid participation restriction means that the company will be prohibited from bidding on all public tenders issued by national agencies, local governments, and others.

Kang Shin-myeon, Director of the Purchasing Business Bureau at the Public Procurement Service, stated, “We will respond strictly to acts of supplying goods produced overseas as if they were domestic to public institutions. For companies engaging in such acts, we will continue to restrict their bid participation to the fullest extent permitted by law and recover all unfair profits to ensure that a fair procurement market culture takes root in the field.”

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