Public funds were misappropriated due to suspicions of dumping work... “Gangwon Sports lost self-purification ability”

(Chuncheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Young-seo = Issues of integrity in the sports world, such as the Gangwon Provincial Sports Council's suspicion of funneling work to a specific company and the successive misappropriation of public funds by sports organizations, came to the fore in the administrative audit.

Gangwon-do lawmaker Choi Jong-hyun (Sokcho 1, Democratic Party of Korea) criticized the administrative affairs audit of the Provincial Sports Council on the 11th, criticizing contract practices focused on specific companies and the repeated problems of corruption in sports organizations.

Representative Choi raised questions about the fairness of the contracts, pointing out that 7 out of 13 contracts were concluded with a company in Samcheok City as a result of analyzing the status of contracts over the past three years.

In particular, the investigation focused on the fact that the service for the opening ceremony of the National Winter Sports Games was contracted with the same company for three consecutive years.

Rep. Choi said, “The purpose of the private contract is to provide fair participation opportunities to local companies and women’s companies, not to guarantee repeated work for a specific company,” and pointed out, “The monopoly of events by the same company can lead to business routine and a decrease in competitiveness.”

He also mentioned that executives of some sports organizations were criminally booked on charges of misappropriation of public funds, and the case related to the Sokcho Archery Association has been ongoing for two years, and scolded, "The level of integrity in the public sector as a whole is increasing, but why do issues of misconduct repeat every year in the sports world?"

At the same time, he pointed out, "It is questionable whether the Gangwon Sports Council has the ability to prevent and correct corruption on its own."

Rep. Choi urged improvement of the system, saying, “There is no trust in Gangwon Sports without establishing a fair contract order and restoring the integrity of sports organizations.”

In response to Rep. Choi's criticism, the Sports Association acknowledged the lack of integrity awareness among sports organization executives and responded that it would prepare a management manual to strengthen self-purification ability.