Gyeonggi-do Awards 46.66 Million Won in Compensation and Rewards to Whistleblowers Reporting Construction Safety Threats

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province will pay a total of 46.66 million KRW in compensation and rewards to whistleblowers who report construction safety threats.

The province announced on the 17th that it held the first Gyeonggi Province Public Interest Reporting Support Committee meeting of 2022 on the 6th and decided to pay a total of 62.64 million KRW, including 25.37 million KRW in compensation for one case and 37.27 million KRW in rewards for 13 cases.

Among these, only in the construction sector, a total of 46.66 million KRW in compensation and rewards will be paid for ▲illegal subcontracting in construction reports (25.37 million KRW) ▲construction business name lending reports (10 million KRW) ▲construction technology career certificate lending reports (10 million KRW) ▲unregistered construction subcontractor reports (790,000 KRW) ▲site agent leaving construction work reports (500,000 KRW), etc.

The person who received the highest compensation for a single report is a whistleblower who reported that a general construction company illegally subcontracted to an unregistered construction business operator. Whistleblower A reported that Construction Company B, which won an urban development project worth approximately 17 billion KRW, illegally subcontracted to an unregistered construction business operator, violating the Framework Act on the Construction Industry.

It was confirmed that Construction Company B divided the contracted work by type and illegally subcontracted to companies or individuals without construction business licenses. Due to this report, the province imposed a fine of about 140 million KRW on the company in 2020 and paid whistleblower A 42.35 million KRW in compensation in June of that year. Subsequently, an additional fine of 84.57 million KRW was imposed, and it was decided to pay an additional 25.37 million KRW in compensation this time.

Accordingly, whistleblower A will receive a total of 67.72 million KRW in compensation. This is the highest amount paid to a whistleblower for a single case since the province established and operated the 'Gyeonggi Province Public Interest Reporting Hotline,' a dedicated channel for public interest and corruption reports, in 2019.

The province pays compensation when internal whistleblowers’ reports lead to the recovery or increase of provincial financial revenue through fines, penalties, etc. In particular, compensation is paid at 30% of the recovered or increased financial revenue without an upper limit.

Additionally, the province decided to pay the maximum possible reward of 10 million KRW each to two whistleblowers who reported unqualified persons who borrowed construction business names to win construction contracts and companies that did not assign construction technicians to construction sites, contributing to the cancellation of those companies’ registrations.

Furthermore, a reward of 500,000 KRW was decided for a whistleblower who reported omissions in some construction processes in the paving work of a bicycle road ordered by a local government. Although the administrative penalty amount resulting from this report was small, the report was evaluated for its preventive effect by supplementing the omitted construction processes and raising awareness in the responsible department to thoroughly manage and supervise the construction.

Outside the construction sector, rewards totaling 15.98 million KRW will be paid for 9 cases, including ▲animal abuse reports such as animal slaughter (1 case, 6.6 million KRW) ▲false registration of daycare teachers (1 case, 2.7 million KRW) ▲failure to conduct self-measurement of air pollutants and other air pollution violations (3 cases, 3.1 million KRW) ▲illegal waste stockpiling and other violations of the Waste Management Act (4 cases, 3.58 million KRW).

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