The heads of design firms and review committee members involved in the apartment design competition organized by Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) have been apprehended by the police for exchanging money and valuables.
The Criminal Investigation Unit of the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency announced on the 26th that it had arrested two individuals, including the head of a design firm based in Gyeonggi Province, for providing money and valuables to review committee members, such as university professors, in the LH apartment design competition.
The police added that eight individuals, including five review committee members who accepted the money and one intermediary, have been referred for prosecution on charges of breach of trust and bribery.
According to the Gyeongnam police, while investigating the so-called "Boneless Apartment" case?officially known as the "LH Apartment Rebar Omission Incident"?at the request of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in August 2023, they discovered evidence that a design firm had provided money and valuables to review committee members during the design competition process. The police then conducted searches and investigated those involved.
According to the police, A, a man in his 50s and the head of a design firm, and his business partner B, a man in his 40s, provided a total of 35 million won in exchange for favorable scores to five review committee members, including C, a university professor in his 50s who was selected as a reviewer in the LH apartment design competition held in October 2021.
It was found that, in order to receive higher scores than their competitors, they gave 10 million won each to two review committee members and 5 million won each to three others.
Although all five review committee members gave high scores to A's firm, the remaining ten review committee members gave higher scores to other firms, resulting in A's firm failing to win the competition.
LH was found to have signed service contracts with firms selected through a review process involving 15 review committee members, including university professors specializing in the relevant evaluation fields, in order to enhance the fairness of the apartment design service provider selection procedure.
It was also found that the names of the applicant firms were kept confidential, and that prior contact between applicants and review committee members, as well as prior explanations of design proposals, were prohibited.
However, this investigation revealed a loophole: the list of review committee members was disclosed prior to the review, making it possible for applicant firms and review committee members to make contact.
In response, the police urged LH to improve the system by keeping the list of review committee members confidential before the review, in order to completely block contact between firms and review committee members.
A representative of the Gyeongnam Provincial Police Agency stated, "Going forward, our agency will continue to eradicate improper practices at construction sites, such as awarding design rights through solicitation or dishonest means, and will work to root out related corruption crimes."
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