(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Yu-lip Choi Won-jeong = People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo claimed on the 13th that there is a suspicion that Suwon City manipulated evaluation scores to give preferential treatment to a cooperative headed by the spouse of Justice Minister candidate Kim Seung-won in the process of being selected as an after-school activity service provider in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in 2022.
Candidate Kim's side refuted this as an "obvious distortion," saying that he had not received any preferential treatment from Suwon City.
Rep. Joo held a press conference at the National Assembly on this day and said, "'Kim Seung-won's family corporation' was unfairly selected with clear preferential treatment," and "unfair zero points were given to intentionally eliminate competitors."
According to Rep. Joo, in 2022, Suwon City selected two of the three organizations that applied as after-school activity service providers, and the 'Korea Child Development Social Cooperative' (hereinafter referred to as Korea Child Development), an organization providing care services for the developmentally disabled, headed by Candidate Kim's spouse, ranked first with 82.5 points.
However, as a result of comparing the application and the scorecard for each judge, Rep. Joo claims that if it had been a normal review, Korea Child Development's quantitative score would have fallen by 11.25 points from 66.25 to 55, while Competitor A's score would have gone up from 55 to 65 points and Competitor B's would have gone up from 40 to 60 points.
Rep. Joo said, "The Kim Seung-won Family Association is a new organization that has only been in Suwon for three months. However, it was given an additional 5 points as a re-designated organization." He also said, "The competitor company secured 2 replacement workers in advance but was given 0 points, while the Kim Seung-won Family Association gave a perfect score of 5 even though it only wrote 'fill in case of vacancy'."
In addition, Korea Child Development announced that it received a perfect score of 10 for convenience facilities even though the elevator, main entrance, and information facilities were completed only on February 24, 8 days later than the application deadline of February 16, 2022.
Rep. Joo said, “In the end, the (competing) company that received 0 points was eliminated,” and “(Korea Child Development) did not have much activity when it was in Yongin City, but when Candidate Kim was elected to the National Assembly, it moved to Suwon City, his district, in January 2022.”
He added, “If it were not for Rep. Kim, it would be impossible for a new, unqualified union to receive such preferential scores in quantitative and qualitative evaluations in just three months.”
Rep. Joo said, "We will file criminal charges against Suwon City judges and others for loss of national treasury and abuse of power, and hold them legally responsible for unfair selection," and added, "The investigation should be expanded to include the overall review, whether candidate Kim Seung-won's couple was solicited, and suspicions of collusion with Suwon City."
Meanwhile, Rep. Joo raised the issue of Candidate Kim's son's attendance record at Korea Child Development, saying, "Since (Candidate Kim's son) is in charge of only one child, (the child's) absence means no work," and added, "I have been raising my salary while only taking charge of one person here (Candidate Kim's son). Is it right to say that we will raise suspicions and report people who raise problems?"
Candidate Kim's personnel hearing preparation team issued a statement on this day and refuted, "Candidate Kim's statement of 'family union' is a clear distortion."
The preparation team emphasized, "Candidate Kim's family is neither the representative of the union nor does it own the union," and added, "The union is an organization established and operated by parents of people with developmental disabilities."
At the same time, he explained, "Candidate Kim and his family have no idea what process was internally reviewed by Suwon City," and added, "I understand that Suwon City has already stated that the preferential treatment claim that was raised is not true at all."
Representative Joo also claimed the day before that Candidate Kim's son's work record was blank three out of ten days while he worked at a welfare institution for the disabled where his mother is the director.
In response to this, Candidate Kim's side refuted that it was due to the absenteeism of the user receiving services from his son, and did not mean that his son did not show up for work.
