Corruption in Public Kindergarten Conversion Project... Police Raid Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The police investigating corruption related to the project of converting private kindergartens into public ones (purchase-type kindergartens) have conducted a search and seizure at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education.

On the 22nd, the Gwangju Western Police Station seized work computers and mobile phones of related personnel from the Administrative Budget Division of the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education.

The police have been investigating after detecting circumstances where private kindergarten operator Mr. A delivered tens of millions of won in money and gifts to then-current city council member Choi Young-hwan, along with a request to "make efforts to be selected as a public-type conversion target."

It is known that Mr. A contacted Councilman Choi, with whom he was close, after receiving such a request from another private kindergarten operator, Mr. B.

In fact, Mr. B's private kindergarten was selected as a public conversion target, but the project was canceled and it was not actually converted to public.

Based on the analysis of seized items, the police plan to investigate whether Councilman Choi exerted undue influence on the Office of Education and whether officials at the Office provided preferential treatment to certain individuals during the selection of project operators.

In this regard, two officials from the Office of Education have been booked.

Among them, one has been additionally booked on charges of leaking official secrets to the outside.

Meanwhile, Councilman Choi fled to the Philippines on the 2nd of last month after the police investigation began and remains at large. The police have invalidated his passport and are tracking his whereabouts.

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