'Ineligible Company Contracts and Unauthorized Performances by Art Troupe Members'... Gyeonggi Art Center Faces Serious Improper Work Issues

Gyeonggi Arts Center Logo

Gyeonggi Arts Center was found to have forged evaluation reports during the vendor selection process and contracted with an unqualified company. Additionally, it was investigated that performing artists, who were prohibited from external performances during a restricted period, violated the rule and performed externally without permission.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 23rd that it conducted a special audit of Gyeonggi Arts Center from March 20 to April 7 and uncovered a total of five cases of improper business handling.

Regarding the detected cases, Gyeonggi Province took five administrative actions including institutional warnings and notifications, and requested personnel disciplinary measures for nine individuals involved in forging proposal evaluation reports and unauthorized external performances.

Among the major findings, it was confirmed that in 2019, Gyeonggi Arts Center employee A forged evaluation scores and signatures on evaluation reports without the consent of the evaluation committee members, then provided the forged documents to the contracting department to finalize a contract with a specific company. Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province demanded that Gyeonggi Arts Center file charges against the employee.

Furthermore, performing artists B and C at Gyeonggi Arts Center were banned from external performances for one year as a disciplinary measure from the Gyeonggi Province audit, but they disregarded this and performed externally without permission. Gyeonggi Province also requested severe disciplinary action against them.

In addition, the audit pointed out other issues at Gyeonggi Arts Center, including ▲payment of 12 months’ worth of expenses for some projects despite the contract period being only 8 months ▲exclusion, avoidance, and evasion of recruitment examiners and failure to conduct background checks for sexual offense records ▲improper security management related to external access to shared webmail accounts.

Gyeonggi Province also issued an institutional warning, stating that Gyeonggi Arts Center caused financial losses by losing part of a lawsuit after proceeding without proper legal review and handling standards regarding the 2021 Labor Commission decision to reinstate an employee, resulting in a payment of 99 million KRW in enforcement fines.

Lee Hee-wan, the head of the Gyeonggi Province audit division, emphasized, "This is a critical time when public institutions must focus all their capabilities on fulfilling their assigned missions," and added, "We will continue to concentrate our audit capabilities to create a transparent and sound management environment in public institutions."

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