Paju-si City Council's Special Investigation Committee on Waste Disposal Company Selection Requests Halt to Illegal Investigation

Ministry of the Interior and Safety: "Household Waste Disposal Companies Are Not Subject to Local Council Administrative Investigations"
Paju City Considers Filing Charges for Illegal Direct Investigation by Agency, Including Abuse of Authority

Gyeonggi Paju City (Mayor Kim Kyung-il) announced on the 17th that, following the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's determination that waste disposal companies cannot be considered direct subjects of local council administrative investigations, it requests the Paju City Council's Special Committee on Administrative Investigations to cease its unlawful investigation targeting waste collection and transportation subcontractors (hereafter referred to as subcontractors).

Paju City Hall exterior. Provided by Paju City

On the 12th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety stated in an official letter titled "Response to Inquiry Regarding the Scope of Local Council Administrative Investigation Subjects" that “waste disposal companies are not considered subjects of the aforementioned administrative audits or investigations.” It further clarified that “while the local council may request submission of documents related to the subcontract agreement between Paju City and the waste disposal companies (such as bidding-related materials) and documents generated during the work process, it would be difficult to demand submission of documents containing personal privacy information of the subcontractors.”

The Paju City Council’s Special Committee on Administrative Investigations into the ‘Selection and Operation of Waste Disposal Companies in Paju City’ (hereafter the Special Committee), which began on September 2 and extended its investigation period until January 31 of next year on October 18, cited the reason for the extension as Paju City’s failure to submit requested materials.

However, according to the city, all materials requested by the Special Committee were submitted faithfully, and the materials not submitted were those not held by Paju City but refused by the subcontractors upon request. In fact, the materials refused by the subcontractors included ‘corporate bank account transaction details, balance certificates, shareholder lists, etc.,’ which are internal company documents unrelated to the Special Committee’s activities.

Additionally, during the witness investigation of Paju City’s Resource Circulation Division officials in November, the responsible public officials expressed the opinion that the Special Committee does not have the authority to directly investigate subcontractors and that requesting internal company documents was inappropriate. However, it was confirmed that Son Seong-ik, the chairman of the Special Committee, threatened to consider filing a complaint for obstruction of investigation if the materials were not submitted.

Accordingly, Paju City inquired with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety about the scope of subjects for administrative investigations, and as a result, the Ministry’s authoritative interpretation clarified that the Special Committee cannot directly investigate subcontractors or request their documents. The city expressed its hope that the Special Committee will cease its unlawful investigations going forward.

Furthermore, Paju City announced plans to review whether the Special Committee’s unlawful investigations constitute abuse of authority or other legal violations and to file complaints if clear violations are found.

The unlawful investigation cases cited by Paju City regarding the Special Committee include: ① direct investigation of subcontractors who are not subjects of the investigation and requests for internal company documents; ② unauthorized intrusion and photography by public officials affiliated with the Paju City Council at sorting facilities; ③ dissemination of clearly false information causing defamation; and ④ a Special Committee member secretly following and photographing subcontractor-employed sanitation workers for two weeks.

Regarding this, a Paju City official stated, “The Special Committee originally started with suspicions of problems in the bidding selection process, but it failed to point out any issues in the bidding process itself and instead conducted unlawful investigations beyond the scope of the Special Committee.” The official added, “Now that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s authoritative interpretation has been issued, we hope the Special Committee will stop its unlawful investigations and conduct investigations within legal procedures and authority.”

The official also said, “While the Special Committee threatened to file complaints against public officials if they did not submit internal subcontractor documents, it refused to disclose the Special Committee meeting minutes requested by the public officials who appeared as witnesses, citing that disclosure could significantly hinder fair work performance.” The official criticized, “Although laws and ordinances require meeting minutes to be disclosed, ignoring this and keeping them confidential while threatening to file complaints for not submitting internal documents of subcontractors who are not even subjects of the investigation seems like a case of double standards.”

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