[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 20th, the Presidential Office rebutted Kim Eui-gyeom, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, who raised suspicions that "the Yongsan Presidential Office construction contract was awarded through a private contract to an unheard-of, shabby company," calling it a "false claim" and stating, "We hope there will be no more baseless allegations."
The Presidential Office spokesperson's office announced to the press on the same day the "Presidential Office's position on Representative Kim Eui-gyeom's claims," saying, "Representative Kim has once again made false claims about a Presidential Office construction company that has no legal issues," and emphasized, "Through his baseless insistence that the company is an 'unheard-of company,' he is inflating unfounded suspicions. However, our country institutionally encourages the selection of small and medium-sized enterprises over large companies in public contracts."
They added, "Furthermore, in the case of general construction work that is not related to security or protective facilities, any company can participate as long as a 'confidentiality agreement' is signed," and "We have repeatedly stated that we selected a company with high price competitiveness and the ability to meet the construction schedule, so we hope there will be no more baseless allegations."
On the same day, Representative Kim appeared on TBS's "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory" in the morning and pointed out, "(Previous governments) entrusted the work to companies they had worked with before, and even if unavoidable, they entrusted it to companies with security experience or a certain scale. But suddenly, an unheard-of company is in charge of the interior of the Blue House office. Does that make sense?" He added, "It is hard to accept that a company that appears shabby was entrusted with the Yongsan office construction, which has the highest security level."
He further claimed, "The company's construction capability evaluation amount is about 300 million won. However, the office construction is about 700 million won, more than double. They bypassed this through a private contract."
He also said, "It's just like a local hole-in-the-wall interior company," and added, "'We got the contract for our Blue House (Yongsan Presidential Office building),' but the president and employees have completely disappeared."
In response, the Presidential Office previously rebutted on the 16th, stating, "The company registered with the Public Procurement Service was qualified to undertake facility construction, so it was selected," and "At the time of the security facility construction contract, the company submitted certificates of full payment of national and local taxes, so there were no defects in the contract conditions."
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