‘Sunsal Apartment’ Controversy... Fair Trade Commission Investigates Construction Design and Supervision Collusion

Party-Government Agreement to Promote Fair Trade Commission's Ex Officio Investigation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Reinforcement steel omission was discovered in apartments commissioned by Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), raising concerns about poor construction quality. In response, the Fair Trade Commission is investigating whether there was bid rigging during the design and supervision processes.

According to relevant government departments on the 3rd, the People Power Party, the government, and the Presidential Office held an emergency high-level party-government meeting to promote an investigation into the poor construction of apartments. The Fair Trade Commission plans to launch an ex officio investigation if it finds evidence of collusion in design and supervision or unfair subcontracting transactions.

LH has agreed to immediately request an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission if it uncovers any signs of collusion among former officials’ companies. At the same time, the Fair Trade Commission intends to use its independently operated “Bid Rigging Suspicion Analysis System” to investigate if any related suspicions such as collusion are detected. This system requires public institutions like LH, the Public Procurement Service, and Korea Electric Power Corporation to provide the Fair Trade Commission with key bidding information (such as bid types, methods, and prices) every month.

If the Fair Trade Commission proceeds with the investigation, the entire construction design and supervision industry is expected to be targeted. This is because the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has decided to expand a full-scale investigation into 293 private apartment complexes nationwide that began construction after 2017. The Fair Trade Commission will also examine whether there was any subcontractor “gapjil” (power abuse) by construction companies related to the reinforcement steel omission incident. A Fair Trade Commission official explained, “We will not focus on any specific part in advance,” adding, “If an investigation takes place, we will comprehensively look into whether design or supervision companies with former LH personnel colluded during the process of winning contracts.”

Earlier, the controversy over “bare-bones apartments” has been spreading after a critical defect of “reinforcement steel omission” was found in underground parking lots of 15 apartment complexes out of 91 flat slab structure apartments commissioned by LH. The flat slab structure, designed to support ceilings only with columns without beams, requires a delicate process in design and construction proportional to the absence of beams.

However, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 31st, careless work across design, construction, and supervision stages led to a large-scale reinforcement steel omission incident. During this process, companies that recruited former LH personnel, known as “LPia,” were found to have been responsible for supervision work at 8 out of the 15 apartments identified with poor construction, further fueling the controversy.

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