Prosecutors Arrest and Indict Public Official and Professor for Bribery in LH Supervision Bidding

"‘Bomb Score’ in Competing Consortium... 50 Million KRW Bribe from Audit Firm
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Officials and professors who received illicit requests and bribes from supervision companies during the bidding process of projects ordered by LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation) and the Public Procurement Service have been brought to trial.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The Fair Trade Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Yong Seong-jin) announced on the 25th that public official Park and private university professors Park and Jung were arrested and indicted on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (bribery).

According to the prosecution, after being selected as judges for the construction project management service bidding ordered by LH, they received requests from supervision companies to "give our consortium the highest score and give the competing consortium a bomb (lowest score)," and then awarded scores according to the requests. They are suspected of receiving 50 million won before and after the evaluation.

The prosecution has been investigating suspicions of collusion worth hundreds of billions of won in the bidding for supervision services for apartment construction projects, including Happy Housing districts, ordered by LH and the Public Procurement Service since August last year.

In this process, it was discovered that about 10 judges involved in the evaluation received money and goods from companies and were involved in the awarding of contracts to those companies. Further investigations are underway regarding those implicated in bribery suspicions.

The prosecution explained that structural corruption was confirmed in which judges in the public construction project management service bidding process received illicit requests such as "if you give bomb scores to competing companies, we will pay more money," accepted large sums of money and goods, and conducted unfair evaluations according to the requests.