Yongin City Launches Audit of Major Permit Approvals and Facility Maintenance Contracts

Mayor Lee Orders "Comprehensive Review of Management Practices... Measures to Enhance Organizational Integrity"
This Month, 818 Major Facility Maintenance Projects Worth 94.3 Billion KRW to Undergo Audit

Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province has launched a comprehensive audit of major permit and approval processes, as well as facility maintenance contracts. This initiative follows a special directive from Mayor Lee Sangil aimed at enhancing organizational integrity and establishing a strong public service discipline.

Lee Sangil, mayor of Yongin, is presiding over an executive meeting in the city hall video conference room, emphasizing the establishment of public service discipline. Provided by Yongin City

According to Yongin City on June 16, Mayor Lee stated, "Due to the city's vast administrative area, there is a high demand for maintenance of facilities such as roads, parks, and rivers. In addition, the creation of semiconductor industrial complexes has led to a surge in permit and approval requests." He instructed, "To prevent poor construction, consider expanding supervisory service contracts and reinforcing professional personnel if necessary."

Mayor Lee added, "To spread a culture of integrity throughout the organization and prevent corruption, completely block the involvement of retired public officials in permit and approval processes, and strengthen integrity education for public officials."

Accordingly, the city has begun a comprehensive inspection, including audits of major permit and approval processes and annual unit price contracts for facility maintenance, to enhance organizational integrity and establish public service discipline.

This month, the city plans to form its own audit team and conduct a large-scale audit of 818 major facility maintenance projects, worth a total of 94.3 billion KRW, that were carried out under annual unit price contracts from last year through the first half of this year.

The audit will focus on maintenance projects conducted under annual unit price contracts, including roads, road structures, road hardware, streetlights, rivers, water supply, traffic safety facilities, parks and green spaces, and agricultural infrastructure. The audit will closely examine whether design changes or completion processing were appropriate, whether design documents or specifications were not followed, and whether there were any omissions, unexecuted work, or excessive construction.

The city will also pursue comprehensive supervisory service contracts for all annual unit price contract projects to enable inspection of all construction sites. In addition, the city will assess the workload of each department and consider reinforcing the organization by assigning additional professional management and supervisory personnel.

If poor construction is detected as a result of the audit, the city will take immediate corrective action. To ensure future site inspections are properly conducted, the city plans to implement fundamental measures at the organizational management level, such as increasing the number of site supervisors. If emergency personnel are deemed necessary, the city will respond first by appointing fixed-term public officials, and in the mid- to long-term, will supplement personnel needs through organizational restructuring.

Separately from this audit, the city will also implement measures to enhance integrity across all municipal operations, such as applying a zero-tolerance "one-strike-out" policy to corruption related to contracts or permit and approval processes.

The city will expand face-to-face integrity education, previously provided only to level 4 and above senior officials, to include level 6 and above, newly promoted officials, newly appointed personnel, and business department staff. General public officials will also be required to complete online training.

To prevent retired public officials from intervening in the permit and approval process, the city will implement a reporting system for contact with retirees in relevant departments and will actively utilize an anonymous reporting system.

Mayor Lee stated, "Fulfilling one's responsibilities based on morality is the duty of a public official and the most fundamental way to earn citizens' trust. We will continuously work to strengthen the organization's capabilities and raise the level of integrity."