Democrats and Park Deok-heum Targeted with Successive Proposals of Conflict of Interest Prevention Law

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] The Democratic Party of Korea is consecutively proposing conflict of interest prevention laws targeting Park Deok-heum, a People Power Party lawmaker suspected of receiving construction contracts worth hundreds of billions of won from supervised institutions.

According to the National Assembly Legislative Information System on the 23rd, the Democratic Party has been consecutively proposing bills targeting Park. On the 22nd, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-guk proposed an amendment to the Public Officials Ethics Act that punishes high-ranking public officials’ affiliated institutions with up to two years imprisonment or a fine of up to 20 million won if they enter into private contracts with corporations or organizations represented by the officials or their direct ascendants or descendants. The bill specifically regulates cases where a company and its subsidiaries are owned more than 50% by the direct ascendants or descendants of a high-ranking public official.

Kim’s office explained the purpose of the bill, stating, "Recently, some lawmakers have been abusing their status as standing committee members to exert undue influence so that corporations or organizations with their direct ascendants or descendants enter into private contracts with public institutions. The current law is only advisory, lacks clear standards on conflicts of interest, and has no punitive provisions for violations, making it ineffective."

Fellow party member Jung Cheong-rae proposed an amendment to the National Assembly Act to establish disqualification criteria for standing committee members. The bill stipulates that if a standing committee member or their spouse or direct ascendants or descendants have private interests that could impair fair and honest performance of duties, they cannot serve as standing committee members of the relevant committee.

The Democratic Party is calling for Park’s resignation. It has been revealed that companies affiliated with Park’s family received over 40 billion won in patent royalties for the STS (Steel Tube Slab) new technology method from public institutions under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. On the previous day, Democratic Party lawmaker Jin Sung-jun held a press conference at the National Assembly refuting explanations related to Park’s preferential contract suspicions, claiming, "Over the past 10 years, Park’s family companies have secured construction contracts worth 47.3 billion won (5 cases) from the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) through private contracts and restricted competitive bidding." He also criticized Park’s opposition to the three-strike bidding collusion legislation, saying, "Park opposed it citing harm to construction companies, but in reality, he was trying to prevent his family companies from being deregistered, which is a typical case of conflict of interest."

Meanwhile, there is analysis that if such bills pass, the process of distributing National Assembly standing committee seats will become more complicated and could backfire on the Democratic Party itself. Prior to Park’s suspicions, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hong-gul, who was expelled from the party, caused controversy by holding 13 million won worth of North-South inter-Korean cooperation stocks while serving on the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and the Intelligence Committee. There is also the case of Lee Sang-jik, founder of Eastar Jet and the first subject of the Ethics Inspection Team’s investigation.