Gangdong-gu, Seoul's First Specific Audit on Construction Sites ... Ensuring Both Quality and Safety

Joint Effort by Experts and Officials... 37 Sites with Construction Costs Over 200 Million Won Targeted
83 Issues Identified... Immediate Improvement Requested for Safety-Related Matters, Commitment to Transparent and Safe Construction Projects

Gangdong-gu (District Mayor Lee Soo-hee) announced on the 26th that it conducted on-site inspections of construction projects for the first half of 2024.

The audit targeted 37 construction sites with a total construction cost of 200 million KRW or more, currently under construction and commissioned by the district. This marks the first time a Seoul autonomous district has conducted on-site inspections of construction projects.

This on-site inspection was a special audit independently initiated by the district to prevent budget waste factors in advance and to create a safe and transparent construction environment. From April 15 to May 17, two external experts in civil engineering and architecture, along with audit officials, jointly conducted field-centered inspections.

The audit method combined document review and on-site inspection. First, related documents such as design drawings were reviewed in writing, and then nine sites were selected for on-site inspection considering the progress rate and construction stage. All aspects of the construction, including quality, safety, and execution, were thoroughly examined.

Accordingly, the district focused on checking ▲whether the construction design drawings matched the on-site construction ▲the installation and compliance of safety facilities ▲management of fire hazard factors, and identified a total of 83 issues. Among these, discrepancies directly related to quality between design drawings and construction, removal of waste inside fall-prevention nets and maintaining their angles, designation of smoking areas, and placement of fire extinguishers within smoking areas were pointed out with immediate improvement recommendations.

Most of the issues were mainly due to staff’s lack of legal knowledge, non-compliance with work procedures, and repetitive work patterns based on precedents. To prevent recurrence of similar cases, thorough job training will be conducted to reduce such issues going forward.

Additionally, exemplary cases such as ▲management of temporary electrical distribution boxes for construction ▲installation of boundary stones and gutters will be shared with related departments to be actively reflected in similar future projects.

On-site inspections of construction projects will also be promoted in the second half of this year, and based on this year’s results, regular inspections are planned to be implemented from 2025.

Lee Soo-hee, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, stated, “Through this special on-site audit of construction projects, we identified problems and proposed improvement measures together,” adding, “We will continue to strive to ensure that construction projects closely related to residents’ lives are carried out transparently and safely.”

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