Gurye County Awards 900 Million Won in Private Contracts Over 3 Years to Mayor's Sister's Company, Sparking Preferential Treatment Controversy

County: "Work Distributed Among Three Local Companies... No Legal Issues"

Gurye County in South Jeolla Province is facing controversy over allegations of preferential treatment after awarding private contracts worth 900 million won over three years to a water and sewage company operated by the county mayor's younger sister.

According to Gurye County officials on August 26, A Construction, a specialized construction company, was headed by the younger sister of County Mayor Kim Soonho and entered into more than 200 contracts with the county from July 2018 to September 2021. The total contract amount reached approximately 900 million won, with most of the private contracts related to the Water and Sewage Works Office.

Exterior view of Gurye County Office.

A Construction was operated by Mayor Kim's younger sister and her husband, and the company secured numerous contracts to connect water and sewage pipelines from the county's main lines to individual households, as well as to repair aging or leaking water pipes.

Even after the company changed its representative in September 2021, the county continued to award more than 250 private contracts worth over 1 billion won to the company over the past four years. This has led to suspicions within the local community that the company associated with Mayor Kim's younger sister may have received preferential treatment for an extended period.

While the Public Officials Conflict of Interest Prevention Act limits the exclusion from public institution private contracts to the public official or their direct lineal ascendants or descendants, concerns have been raised that it is inappropriate for the county mayor's sibling to have secured hundreds of construction contracts.

In response, the county has stated that it simply distributed work among the three local companies registered for water and sewage construction, and that no preferential treatment was given.

A county official explained, "There are three companies registered for water and sewage construction in the county, and we distributed projects such as water supply installation and facility repairs evenly among them. To promptly address civil complaints, we assigned projects to local companies that met the requirements for private contracts, and there are no legal issues."