Hongseong County Council Criticizes Repeated Administrative Failures in Public Building Projects

Choi Seonkyung Criticizes Repeated Administrative Failures in Public Building Projects
"Budget Waste Ultimately Becomes a Burden on Residents"

Councilor Seonkyung Choi of Hongseong County Council pointed out the poor quality and expected waste in the public building construction project of Hongseong County. Photo by Hongseong County Council

Seonkyung Choi, a councilor of Hongseong County Council (representing Hongseong-eup A, Democratic Party of Korea), strongly criticized the repeated administrative failures and budget waste occurring during the process of public building construction projects.

On June 20, during a five-minute speech at the 313th regular session of the Hongseong County Council held in the council's main chamber, Councilor Choi pointed out the overall issues of Hongseong County’s public building projects, including poor initial planning, inaccurate budget estimation, construction delays, and inadequate post-construction utilization plans.

Councilor Choi stated, "In recent years, large-scale public building construction projects, which have been promoted with enormous amounts of taxpayer money, have suffered from poor design and construction, resulting in frequent changes and various defects even before occupancy after completion." She further criticized, "The costs of construction and operation, and even the astronomical opportunity costs caused by construction delays, ultimately become a burden borne entirely by the residents."

According to Councilor Choi, in the cases of the 'Hongseong Community Self-Sufficiency Center New Construction Project' and the 'Public Bus Garage Construction Project,' the project costs have nearly doubled compared to the initial estimates at the time of commissioning.

For the Hongseong Community Self-Sufficiency Center, construction delays caused the construction cost to rise from over 4 billion KRW at the time of commissioning to more than 7.3 billion KRW upon completion. Similarly, the Public Bus Garage Construction Project, originally planned at 5.8 billion KRW in 2022, saw its total project cost increase to 10.6 billion KRW as a result of the detailed design service.

Councilor Choi emphasized, "For all public building construction projects, thorough review is necessary from the basic planning stage." She pointed out, "Design, construction, and supervision should be treated as a single set as a fundamental principle, but in the case of the 'Guhang Industrial Complex Multipurpose Cultural Center Remodeling Project,' the failure to include supervision fees in the construction budget resulted in the project cost increasing from the original 4.3 billion KRW to 5 billion KRW. Such immature administration has led to repeated cases of budget waste."

As measures to reduce poor construction and budget waste, Councilor Choi proposed: strengthening expertise from the planning stage of public building projects; expanding design competitions and establishing an appropriate construction cost estimation system; and building an integrated management system for public buildings.

Councilor Choi urged, "The executive branch must strive to restore the trust of the residents not with excuses, but with practical and concrete measures, and demonstrate clear change and innovation to ensure that taxpayers’ money is not wasted."