Democratic Party Seoul Metropolitan Council "Push for Administrative Investigation to Clarify Allegations Against Oh Se-hoon"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] Jin Seong-jun, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Democratic Party members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council announced that they will push for a special administrative investigation committee to probe allegations of conflict of interest involving Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate.

At a press conference on the 5th, they stated, "The Seoul Metropolitan Council submitted a request today for an administrative investigation regarding the leak of internal information related to the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing District and the conflict of interest allegations against former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon," adding, "We will subsequently form a special administrative investigation committee to uncover the truth about the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing District and conduct the administrative investigation."

The lawmakers said, "There have been concerns raised about a conflict of interest involving Oh Se-hoon during his tenure as Seoul Mayor in relation to the designation and compensation processes of the Bogeumjari Housing District," and expressed "deep regret over the growing public distrust in Seoul city administration caused by candidate Oh Se-hoon."

They further asserted, "It is an undeniable fact that land in Naegok-dong, inherited and owned by Oh Se-hoon's spouse and in-laws, was designated as part of the Bogeumjari Housing District, released from the development restriction zone, and purchased. Consequently, Oh Se-hoon's in-laws received compensation amounting to 3.65 billion KRW as well as special allotments for single-family lots. Moreover, all these transactions were carried out by Oh Se-hoon himself during his mayoral tenure, which is also an indisputable fact."

They also claimed, "According to Article 4, Paragraph 5 of the Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the Construction of Bogeumjari Housing, local public corporations must go through the city or provincial governor to propose housing district designations. Therefore, the Seoul Mayor has the authority and obligation to review and approve proposals from the president of the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH), the project implementer. Furthermore, candidate Oh Se-hoon selected the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing project as a key performance indicator (KPI) for Seoul city and regularly monitored the project's progress monthly."

They added, "It is only reasonable to suspect that Oh Se-hoon abused his authority as Seoul Mayor to obtain private benefits, thereby violating the duty to avoid conflicts of interest under the Public Officials Ethics Act."

The lawmakers pointed out, "It has been revealed through the media that Oh Se-hoon was present during the surveying of the controversial Naegok-dong land in June 2005, when former Mayor Lee Myung-bak was promoting the designation of the National Rental Housing District. This raises suspicions that internal information regarding the designation was leaked in advance and that Oh Se-hoon was aware of it. In fact, Oh Se-hoon attended the land survey on June 13, and a week later, on June 20, the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) signed a contract for survey and design services to propose the district designation. This constitutes a violation of the prohibition on the use of internal confidential information under the Anti-Corruption Act."

They intend to thoroughly investigate not only the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing District but also the overall National Rental Housing District projects to determine whether any illegal or improper actions occurred during the project implementation process.

The special investigation will cover issues such as the prior and subsequent leakage of information and appropriateness of the survey and design services contract related to the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation’s 'National Rental Housing District Designation,' the circumstances of the Oh Se-hoon family’s land surveying in Naegok-dong and their awareness of the possibility of lifting development restrictions, the appropriateness and withdrawal process of Seoul city’s proposal for the Naegok-dong National Rental Housing District designation, whether Oh Se-hoon inspected the Naegok district in 2007, the circumstances and appropriateness of the proposal to designate the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing District, the appropriateness of internal reporting within Seoul city and consultations with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport during project implementation, the appropriateness of land compensation for the Naegok-dong Bogeumjari Housing District, and whether there were violations of the Public Officials Ethics Act and the Anti-Corruption Act during the Naegok-dong National Rental Housing and Bogeumjari Housing projects.