'Suspected Favoritism in Vendor Selection'... Police Conduct Search and Seizure at Sokcho City Hall

Board of Audit and Inspection, "Confirmation of Regulation Violation in Collusion Guidelines and Evaluation Score Calculation Different from Guidelines"

Sokcho City Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] On the 4th, the police conducted a search and seizure of the relevant department in Sokcho City regarding allegations of preferential treatment in the selection of the tourism theme facility operator at Sokcho Beach in Gangwon Province.

The Anti-Corruption Economic Crime Investigation Unit of the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency secured related materials by searching the Sokcho City Tourism Division office and others from 10 a.m. that day.

According to the police, the construction of the Sokcho Beach tourism theme facility was promoted as a private investment project in 2020 and is currently operational.

The project involves the operator completing the facility and donating it to Sokcho City, after which the city grants the operator the right to operate it for a certain period.

However, among the five companies that applied, allegations arose that the city favored a specific company during the selection process.

In this regard, former Sokcho City Council member Kang Jeong-ho collected 1,633 residents' signatures and filed a public interest audit request with the Board of Audit and Inspection in May last year regarding the preferential treatment allegations.

Former Council member Kang claimed, "Considering the testimonies that former Mayor Kim Cheol-su ordered reports to be made to the mayor even on trivial matters during his tenure, he must have been aware of this work situation as well."

According to his claim, in 2020, when Sokcho City announced the private operator recruitment, the city changed the scoring allocation in the quantitative evaluation criteria for the operator's financial and credit soundness, awarding 20 points more than originally allocated.

Furthermore, among the five companies that applied, the selected company was a newly established business with the smallest equity capital of 9.4 million KRW but received a perfect score of 100 points, raising suspicions of preferential treatment.

The Board of Audit and Inspection confirmed that Sokcho City violated regulations by announcing the recruitment guidelines and calculating evaluation scores favorably for a specific company, and referred the matter to the police for investigation.

Subsequently, the city was notified to impose suspension on two employees involved and a warning on another employee.

Meanwhile, the Sokcho Beach tourism theme facility, built on the site where the administrative service office at the existing beach entrance was demolished, includes one Ferris wheel and a four-story theme park.