Public Procurement Service, fines up to 10 million won for obstruction of investigation... Double the reward for reporting unfair practices

The Public Procurement Service announced on the 10th that it will implement a 'fair procurement strengthening plan' starting on the 11th, which will investigate unfair procurement practices ex officio even without reports and double the reward for reporters.

Accordingly, from now on, even if there is no report, the Public Procurement Service can directly initiate an investigation if there are reasonable grounds to suspect unfair practices, such as media reports, delivery inspection and quality inspection results, and history of repeated violations.

Through ex officio investigations, we plan to quickly respond to acts that undermine market order through expedient methods and create a procurement environment so that companies that compete fairly are not disadvantaged.

In addition, a fine of up to 10 million won is imposed for failing to respond to an investigation official's request to submit data, submitting false, concealed, or fabricated data, or refusing, obstructing, or evading an on-site investigation.

If a demand agency presents unfair contract conditions, such as adding a cost burden that was not present at the time of bidding, or makes a request that violates the contract conditions, such as free delivery of goods not in the contract, the procuring company can report it through the 'Demand Agency Unfair Behavior Reporting Center'.

After receiving a report, the Public Procurement Service conducts an investigation and if an unfair act is confirmed, it requests the relevant requesting agency to make corrections and recommends system improvement if necessary.

In order to further encourage reporting of unfair procurement practices, the reward in the field of recovering unfair profits will be doubled in all sectors.

Baek Seung-bo, head of the Public Procurement Service, said, “Expedients and unfair practices in public procurement ultimately fall on the burden of companies that compete faithfully,” and added, “We will create a fair procurement ecosystem where principles prevail over expedients and fair competition prevails over unfair practices.”