'Overpaid Amounts Paid as Is to Companies'... Gyeonggi-do Uncovers 34 Illegal and Unfair Acts in Uiwang-si

Gyeonggi Provincial Government

Uiwang City in Gyeonggi Province was found to have improperly handled tasks, such as paying contractors who inflated construction costs without adjustment.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 21st that it uncovered 34 cases of improper administrative actions through a comprehensive audit of Uiwang City conducted from April 21 to 27.

Regarding the detected cases, Gyeonggi Province issued 17 warnings and 13 corrective administrative measures, and imposed a surcharge of 310 million KRW. Additionally, it requested personnel actions against 33 related individuals.

Among the major findings, Uiwang City officials A and B pursued a construction contract estimated at over 5 billion KRW but incorrectly applied the difficulty coefficient, deciding the winning bidder based on an unjustified minimum bid rate. Furthermore, they contracted 11 forestry projects to unqualified companies.

Another official, C, while promoting road construction, improperly approved and paid construction costs despite the contracted company submitting inflated construction statements and supporting documents, causing budget losses due to improper supervision and management of the construction work.

Additionally, violations such as exceeding building height limits to secure sunlight for apartment complexes, improper storage, management, and disposal of narcotics, and contracts with companies that did not meet bidding qualifications were confirmed.

Gyeonggi Province also pointed out issues including improper handling of goods management and split private contracts, mismanagement of subsidy settlements for local festivals, and negligence in real estate development licensing procedures.

Lee Hee-wan, the province’s chief audit officer, stated, "Although the number of issues pointed out in this audit is somewhat reduced compared to the previous audit in 2015 (which had 48 cases), some illegal and improper task handling has undermined trust in administration and caused budget waste. Moving forward, fundamental and practical improvement measures for administrative task handling must be prepared, and efforts should be made to enhance public officials’ capabilities to strengthen administrative integrity and ensure legality."