It has been pointed out that Yangsan City in South Gyeongsang Province has repeatedly executed private contracts with specific companies while concluding more than 14,000 private contracts over the past three years, and that there is a need to improve the system to increase contract fairness and transparency.
According to Yonhap News coverage on the 8th, the number of private contracts signed by Yangsan City from August 2023 to last August is 14,608, amounting to 482.915 billion won.
Compared to the number of private contracts in Gimhae City, which has a larger population and administrative scale than Yangsan City, with 4,213 contracts and an amount of 170.834 billion won during the same period, the number of contracts is approximately 3.5 times greater and the amount is approximately 2.8 times greater.
Yangsan City's veterinary contracts were executed in various fields by industry, including design, safety inspection, pest control, road paving, and landscaping.
In particular, company A related to construction and civil engineering in the region received 136 orders (worth 2.88 billion won) through private contracts during this period, winning an average of more than 45 contracts per year.
It was revealed that this company won various city projects ordered by each department, regardless of the main office, agricultural technology center, Woongsang branch office, and towns and villages, through repeated private contracts every year.
Electrical and design-related company B, founded by a former senior civil servant in Yangsan City, also signed 78 private contracts, showing a tendency for private contracts to be concentrated on specific companies.
Compared to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security's announcement of guidelines last August to limit the number and amount of private quotation contracts that can be concluded with the same company, the concentration of private contracts with specific companies in Yangsan City is even more noticeable.
At the time, in order to prevent the fair contract order from being undermined by directing private contracts to specific companies, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security prohibited local governments from entering into private contracts with the same company five times a year or over 200 million won per year, and metropolitan local governments seven times a year or over 300 million won per year.
In light of this, it is pointed out that the number of private contracts awarded by companies A and B over the past three years is seriously concentrated on specific companies.
Yangsan City's practice of focusing on private contracts recently came to the fore at the city council.
At the 215th 1st regular meeting held on the 29th of last month, Rep. Kim Seok-gyu of the Democratic Party of Korea pointed out the problem of contracts being concentrated on specific companies for a long period of time and urged measures to be taken.
He pointed out, “Repeated contracts should not be taken for granted just because there are a limited number of specialized companies,” and “To improve the contract structure in which citizens’ taxes are repeatedly concentrated on specific companies, the city must establish its own management standards and preliminary inspection procedures.”
Regarding this, Yangsan City's stance is that, looking at the city as a whole, there are limitations in controlling situations in which contracts are repeated with the same company in real time.
A city official said, "There is a tendency for repeated orders to be placed with local companies due to the limited number of companies with specific qualifications for each contract field or industry, making it difficult to select a replacement company," and added, "We will make efforts to ensure that contracts are handled fairly by creating our own standards and prior procedures in response to the phenomenon of contracts being concentrated by industry."
