Paju-si Refutes Allegations of Submitting Copies Instead of Original Documents for Storage
The Paju City Council in Gyeonggi Province has raised suspicions of ‘unauthorized destruction of public records’ generated during the selection process of waste disposal companies in Paju.
The Special Committee for Administrative Investigation on the Selection of Waste Disposal Companies and Related Work Promotion in Paju City Council (hereinafter referred to as the Investigation Committee) announced on the 11th, “It has been confirmed that Paju City violated the ‘Act on the Management of Public Records’ during the selection of waste disposal companies and related work processes, and plans to take legal action against those involved.”
The Investigation Committee stated, “During the evaluation by the Qualification Review Committee in the selection process of waste disposal companies, it was revealed during the administrative investigation that the qualitative evaluation business plans distributed to each committee member for each company were not preserved,” adding, “The unauthorized destruction of these records was confirmed to be a violation of the record management obligations under Article 19 (Management of Records), Article 19-2 (Prohibition of Unauthorized Concealment of Records), and Article 27 (Disposal of Records) of the ‘Act on the Management of Public Records.’”
Son Seong-ik, Chairman of the Investigation Committee, emphasized, “This issue is a serious problem that greatly undermines the transparency and reliability of public record management. We will urge thorough investigation and inquiry by investigative agencies into Paju City’s poor record management and unauthorized destruction,” and added, “We will ensure that similar cases do not recur through a thorough fact-finding and punishment of those responsible.”
The Investigation Committee plans to take legal action on any illegal matters revealed in the future administrative investigation results.
In response, Paju City stated on the same day, “The materials submitted in response to the Investigation Committee’s request are copies of the originals kept for preservation, and the copies are confirmed to be identical to the originals,” dismissing the Investigation Committee’s claims of unauthorized destruction.
The city explained, “The Investigation Committee requested 20 materials on September 25 and 11 materials on October 4, and the city submitted all requested materials to the council twice, on September 30 and October 11,” adding, “The qualitative evaluation business plans were submitted by the bidding companies participating in the service bid to the responsible department (Resource Circulation Division, Cleaning Administration Team) along with preservation originals and distribution copies, and the preservation originals are currently kept by the department.”
The city particularly emphasized, “Since the originals are currently being preserved, Chairman Son Seong-ik’s claim that the materials were destroyed without authorization is clearly untrue.”
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