LH Innovation Committee's 1-Year Achievements: "Measures to Prevent Speculation Recurrence and Establish Internal Controls"

Implementation Review of Innovation Tasks Discussed in 10 Meetings Since May 2021 Launch
Leading Comprehensive Management Innovation Including Strengthening Internal Controls, Management, and Work Systems
Summary of One Year of Innovation Efforts and Achievements to Be Published on Website in First Half of Year

At the 2nd LH Innovation Committee meeting held on the 25th, Chairman Kim Jun-gi (third from the left), LH President Kim Hyun-jun (fourth from the left), committee members, and officials are posing for a commemorative photo. / Provided by LH.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) announced on the 25th that it held the 2nd LH Innovation Committee meeting of the year at the Metropolitan Area Urban Renewal Headquarters to review the achievements of the past year and discuss ways to share innovation activities and results with the public.

Since his inauguration in April last year, LH President Kim Hyun-jun launched the LH Innovation Committee in May of the same year to implement intensive innovation involving external experts. Since then, the Innovation Committee has held 10 meetings, setting four major directions: strengthening internal control, enhancing management, innovating work systems, and reinforcing public communication, while discovering and promoting innovation tasks across overall management.

The Innovation Committee diagnosed the fundamental causes of the LH real estate speculation scandal and prepared recurrence prevention measures and internal control plans following the sequence of ‘prevention - detection and sanction - monitoring and management.’

Specifically, a prevention system was established through prohibiting new real estate acquisitions related to duties and building a reporting and registration system for owned real estate. Detection and sanctions were strengthened through a full survey of real estate in project districts and exclusion of employees from compensation. Continuous monitoring and management were enhanced by introducing a compliance officer system and establishing a real-time audit system. Additionally, to address suspicions of preferential treatment for former officials and irregularities in purchase reviews related to projects, all judges in design competitions and purchase reviews were composed entirely of external members, and on-site supervision authority in material selection was significantly reduced.

Measures to strengthen management, such as organizational and personnel innovation to revitalize the overall work atmosphere, were also prepared and promoted. Real estate speculators are fundamentally excluded from promotion to higher positions, and if dismissed due to speculation or related acts, their salary can be reduced by up to 50% as part of innovation measures. This year, plans include continuous innovation toward a working and performance-driven organization by expanding available personnel through shortening the wage peak period and strengthening low-performance management programs.

Along with this, the Innovation Committee is promoting public communication enhancement measures that strengthen communication and participation with various stakeholders such as residents, local governments, communities, and the construction industry, including the introduction of a public participation finishing material evaluation meeting, operation of a communication council with the construction industry, and operation of a resident compensation council. Furthermore, to more actively reflect customer voices in projects, a Customer Satisfaction Management Committee has been launched.

As with the previous disclosure of agenda items and achievements from the 10 meetings, the Innovation Committee plans to summarize the efforts and achievements of the Innovation Committee over the past year and disclose them on the website during the first half of the year.

President Kim said, "Over the past year, all employees have united and made their best efforts for a thorough innovation," adding, "This year, we plan to actively share the efforts and achievements of innovation with the public and continue efforts to embed the DNA of innovation within the organization."

Innovation Committee Chairman Kim Jun-gi urged, "Along with continuous innovation, fundamental management transformation efforts such as ESG management are also necessary."