Public Procurement Service Discards Drone Worth 200 Million After Neglect
Unused for 10-16 Months After Purchase in National Property Survey
Ando-geol: "Waste of Taxpayer Money... Considering Use of Rental Drones"
The Public Procurement Service purchased five drones at a cost of 225.17 million KRW for the purpose of administrative property investigation but neglected them for a long time before discarding them.
According to National Assembly audit data submitted by the Public Procurement Service to Ahn Do-gul, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea representing Gwangju Dongnam-eul, on the 4th, the agency bought five drones for over 225 million KRW between 2016 and 2017.
The headquarters acquired fixed-wing drones (with wings fixed to the fuselage) worth about 67.1 million KRW, while four regional offices (Daegu, Gwangju, Gangwon, and Chungbuk) purchased rotary-wing drones (operated by propellers mounted on a rotating shaft) worth 39.5 million KRW each. The drones were reportedly purchased to assist in surveying national property, especially in areas difficult to access such as forests or where precise imaging was required.
However, the headquarters did not use the drones even once for 16 months after July 2022 and discarded them in November of last year. The Gangwon regional office left theirs unused for one year, Daegu for 11 months, and Gwangju for 10 months before discarding them around the same time.
A Public Procurement Service official explained, "The drones broke down, and although repair was considered, we decided to discard them based on the fact that their service life of four years had passed and the equipment was outdated."
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Rep. Ahn criticized, "The drones prepared for managing national property were left unused for years and underutilized, which is a waste of taxpayers' money," adding, "Since drones are highly effective in confirming unauthorized occupation of national property, we should consider lending them out for use when necessary to improve the efficiency of future investigations."
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