Yongin City Develops Program to Prevent Preferential Treatment of Specific Companies in Private Contracts

[Asia Economy (Yongin) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province has developed and is operating its own 'Contract Management System' program to prevent concentration on specific companies in single-estimate private contracts under an estimated price of 20 million KRW.

According to relevant laws, central government ministries, local governments, and public institutions can enter into single-estimate private contracts under an estimated price of 20 million KRW, and women-, disabled-, and social enterprises can enter into private contracts up to an estimated price of 50 million KRW.

Yongin City prioritizes selecting local companies to revitalize the local economy when making private contracts, but limits contracts to four times per year per contracting department to prevent contracts from concentrating on specific companies.

However, the status of private contracts was managed manually by each contracting department, making it difficult to immediately check the contract status by company.

The city conducted a full analysis of 34,952 cases of construction, goods, and service contracts over the past three years. While each department complies with the criteria for concluding private contracts, the city confirmed that 45% of contracts citywide are single-estimate private contracts concentrated with specific companies.

The city decided to develop and introduce the program, judging that an internal monitoring device is necessary to resolve contract concentration and allow more companies to participate.

Once the system is introduced, the contract status by department and company can be grasped at a glance, preventing contracts from concentrating on specific companies.

The development of this system was a joint effort between the Accounting Division and the Policy Planning Office. It was conducted internally, resulting in budget savings.

Typically, outsourcing the construction of such a system costs about 10 to 20 million KRW.

Kang Cheol-min, an officer working in the Big Data Management Team of the Policy Planning Office, which developed this program, said, "With the introduction of this private contract management system, we expect to reduce contract concentration on some companies and provide more companies with opportunities to win contracts," adding, "We will continue to prepare supplementary measures for fair competition in the future."