Small-Scale Maintenance Association Executives Also Deemed 'Public Officials'... "Accumulated Meal Invitations Lead to Punishment"

On-site Training for Seoul's Small-Scale Housing Maintenance Associations
Mandatory Education Introduced This Year Under Revised Law
"Online Courses Also Considered for the Second Half of the Year"

"There was a case where seven out of eight board members of a reconstruction project association were simultaneously put on trial on bribery charges. If you continuously accept meal invitations, the accumulated amount can lead to criminal punishment."

On the morning of May 7, at the Grand Auditorium on the 4th floor of the Huengsaeng-dong building in Seoul Seosomun Government Complex, attorney Kwonkyu Kim of Onsaemiro Law Firm presented a real-life indictment case from the podium, prompting a brief silence among the audience.

With the amendment of the Urban and Residential Environment Maintenance Act, last year, training to strengthen the capabilities of association executives was made mandatory. The Seoul Metropolitan Government conducted the training from the 6th to the 11th of last month. Photo by Minjin Kim.

On the day of a board meeting, a cooperating company visited the association office and handed a white envelope to the association president and board members, suggesting they have a meal together. After the dinner, the remaining cash was divided among the executives. While the amount per occasion was around 1 million won, repeated instances over several years caused the total to balloon to tens of millions of won. During a separate investigation into the company, a diary hidden in the ceiling duct was discovered, and the records of cash exchanges noted in the notebook led to all board members being summoned to the police station. Two individuals, including the association president, were indicted and detained, effectively paralyzing the project.

This lecture was the second day of the "Seoul Small-Scale Housing Maintenance Association Executive Capacity Building Program," which became mandatory following the revision of the Urban and Residential Environment Improvement Act. This training, introduced by Seoul City for the first time this year, was held over four weekdays from May 6 to May 11, with three-hour sessions each morning for a total of 12 hours.

According to Seoul City on May 13, following the legal revision, any association executive (president, director, or auditor) who was reappointed or newly appointed after November 21 of last year must complete at least 12 hours of training on association management, professional aptitude, and ethics within six months of their reappointment or appointment. The curriculum covers the institutional framework and procedures for small-scale housing maintenance projects such as alley housing improvement and Moa Town, association operation and decision-making structures, integrity, ethics, and major corruption cases, precautions when selecting partner companies, and budget and accounting management.

The core of the day's lecture focused on the "deemed public official" provision and related criminal liability for association presidents and executives. This provision states that although association executives and staff of professional management firms are legally private citizens, for bribery offenses under the Criminal Act, they are to be treated as public officials. Therefore, if they receive money or valuables in connection with their duties, they are subject to the same severe criminal penalties as public officials.

Attorney Kim explained, "If the bribe amount is between 30 million and 50 million won, the minimum sentence is five years; between 50 million and 100 million won, the minimum is seven years; and if it exceeds 100 million won, it is life imprisonment or at least ten years. This is far more serious than the penalty for assault, which is one month to five years in prison under the Criminal Act." Even if the money is not received directly but goes to a family member or acquaintance, it constitutes third-party bribery. If an executive asks a colleague to secure a contract for them, it constitutes an offense of brokerage bribery.

Seoul City expects that this training will help prevent operational confusion, corruption, poor accounting management, and disputes over partner selection that have occurred at some sites, thereby enhancing the overall reliability and transparency of projects.

A Seoul City official stated, "If fairness and responsibility increase in the process of managing the association, a stable business environment based on trust among members will be created, and unnecessary conflicts will decrease, contributing to a faster project implementation." The official added, "To increase participation and expand the program, we are considering offering online training in the second half of the year."

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