Board of Audit and Inspection Files Charges Against Former Employee of Health Family Promotion Agency for 'Bid Information Leak'

On the 24th, the Board of Audit and Inspection revealed through an audit report that a former employee of the Korea Healthy Family Promotion Agency (Hangawon), an institution under the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, leaked internal bidding-related information to a specific company.

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, Mr. A, who was in charge of the information system construction project at Hangawon in 2021 and 2022, was investigated for leaking project-related proposal requests and other documents to a specific company before the bidding announcement.

Seoul Jongno-gu Board of Audit and Inspection / Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

With only 13 days for the bidding announcement period, this company, which gained a competitive advantage, submitted a sole bid and was selected as the final contractor. Mr. A resigned from Hangawon at the end of April and immediately moved to the Korea Women's Rights Promotion Agency. The Board of Audit and Inspection reported Mr. A to the prosecution on charges of bid rigging and requested Hangawon to notify the Women's Rights Promotion Agency of Mr. A's misconduct as a reference for personnel matters.

The Board of Audit and Inspection also demanded disciplinary action against Department Head Mr. B for negligence in management and supervision during this process. It was found that Mr. B did not conduct supervision of the system construction project, which amounted to 1.47 billion KRW at the time. According to the law, supervision is mandatory for information system construction projects with a budget exceeding 500 million KRW.

Additionally, the Board of Audit and Inspection pointed out that Hangawon processed the completion of the project and paid the contractor despite major tasks of the system construction project not being fulfilled. Even after the system service started in April last year, key functions did not operate properly or errors occurred.

The Board of Audit and Inspection notified Hangawon to prepare measures such as restricting bidding participation qualifications for contractors who did not properly fulfill the system construction project.