On September 3, the Daegu city government announced that it had conducted an inspection of 23 regional housing cooperatives in the Daegu area by the end of August to ensure transparent operations and protect the rights of cooperative members. As a result, the city uncovered numerous cases of improper management and decided to impose administrative sanctions.
In response to a series of recent disputes arising from the promotion of regional housing cooperatives-including excessive increases in construction costs, non-disclosure of cooperative information, and the signing of unfair contracts-the city launched an emergency inspection.
Daegu city focused its inspection on key areas that could directly harm cooperative members, including whether information was disclosed, performance reports were submitted, and financial execution records were provided. The inspection also covered advertisements for recruiting members and membership contracts.
Based on the inspection findings, the relevant district offices plan to take a total of 26 administrative actions within this month, including 13 criminal complaints, 2 fines, and 9 corrective orders.
The main violations included failure to disclose documents and related materials regarding the implementation of housing cooperative projects on the internet, failure to prepare quarterly performance reports, failure to submit financial operation plans and financial execution records, and omission of the area and ratio of land use rights or ownership secured in member recruitment reports and membership contracts.
Daegu city stated that it will ensure district offices thoroughly manage and supervise the operational and management shortcomings of regional housing cooperatives identified in this inspection. The city also plans to continuously pursue necessary institutional improvements in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
In particular, the "Plan to Establish Construction Cost Verification," which Daegu city proposed to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in June, has been included in the current amendment to the Housing Act and is awaiting review by the relevant National Assembly committee. Daegu city is making every effort to ensure transparent operations of regional housing cooperatives and to prevent harm to cooperative members.
Heo Jooyoung, Director of the Urban Housing Bureau of Daegu city, stated, "The regional housing cooperative system was originally introduced as part of a housing stabilization policy for people without homes. However, issues such as delays in securing land, construction cost problems, and lack of expertise are now causing projects to be delayed or canceled. We will work even more closely with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to ensure that institutional improvements to prevent harm to cooperative members are implemented as soon as possible. We will also share the inspection results with district offices, which serve as supervisory agencies, to prevent similar cases from recurring."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
