[2023 National Audit] Gongyoung Home Shopping Faces Fairness Controversy in Model Bidding Process

Assemblyman Park Su-young "Applicants Should Be Disqualified If They Exceed the Announcement Time"
Documents Not Listed on Receipt Received Full Marks on the Score Sheet

Public Home Shopping has been accused of not adhering to principles during the bidding process for a model agency.

Minister Lee Young of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is responding to a lawmaker's question at the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee audit held on the 12th.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the afternoon of the 27th, Park Soo-young, a member of the People Power Party, stated at the National Assembly’s Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises and Venture Businesses Committee audit, “Bidding is extremely important from a company’s perspective, yet fairness was not upheld at all.”

According to Representative Park, during the 2021 bidding process for home shopping model agencies, Public Home Shopping ultimately selected a company that submitted its application past the deadline. After the first and second rounds of bidding failed, the process moved to a third round where three companies applied, but two of them submitted their documents later than the announced deadline.

Park said, “The two companies that submitted after the 11 a.m. deadline stated in the announcement should have been automatically disqualified, but the company that submitted late offered the lowest bid and won the contract. The receipt number for the latest submission was 2, while the earlier submission was 3, which is incomprehensible. I wonder who could have tampered with this for it to happen this way.”

Another issue was that the selected company did not properly submit performance certificates and model profiles. Park pointed out, “Although the receipt did not include them, the scoring sheet shows that the performance certificate was attached and received a perfect score of 20 points, and even though the company did not submit any models, it also received a perfect score. According to the Enforcement Rules of the State Contract Act, submitted bids cannot be exchanged, changed, or canceled.”

In response, Cho Sung-ho, CEO of Public Home Shopping, said, “We will sincerely cooperate to clearly clarify the matter during the upcoming audit by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups,” and added, “We will proactively review all bidding contracts and promptly implement system improvements.”

Minister Lee Young of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups also emphasized, “I said this morning that I am ashamed regarding Public Home Shopping, and I truly have nothing to say. This happened in 2021, yet the internal staff were unaware of the facts until Representative Park pointed them out. There must be a revolutionary change in internal management.”

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