The ruling and opposition parties criticize SL Corporation for ‘illegal private contracting and operation of power generation facilities’

On the 15th, during the government audit of the Sudokwon Landfill Site Management Corporation (SL Corporation) under the Ministry of Environment, ruling and opposition party lawmakers continued to criticize and ask for the agency's pending issues, including illegal private contracts and the operation of a 50MW (megawatt) power generation facility.

Representative Lee Yong-woo of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee, confirmed at the National Assembly inspection held at the National Assembly on this day, "Is it true that you said that you will not enter into any future private contracts in relation to the resource circulation facility, where the issue of illegal private contracts arose?"

He continued, “(If it is not a private contract), there may be a direct management or open competition consignment plan, but direct management may be cheaper,” and asked, “Please compare and review the two plans.”

Regarding the plan to utilize the upper part of the 2nd landfill site, where reclamation has been completed and soil covering is in progress, he asked, “Please actively look for ways to utilize it for the convenience of surrounding residents who have been suffering damage for a long time.”

Representative Park Ji-hye of the same party criticized the response and actions of SL Corporation, which suffered billions of won in losses due to a false report by a company that was entrusted with operating a 50MW power generation facility.

Representative Park pointed out, "This was revealed in an audit at the end of last year, and there was a recommendation that damages should be paid. In this situation, as the end of the contract approached on April 30th, we signed a short-term contract with the company and paid an additional 5.2 billion won, saying that more preparations were needed."

He then criticized, asking, “Is it okay to continue entrusting operations to a company like this?” and “Follow-up measures are needed.”

It was also pointed out that SL Corporation was passive in establishing a new role despite environmental and historical changes, such as the ban on direct landfill and reduction in import volume.

Park Soo-min, a People Power Party lawmaker, said, "The Ministry of Environment has a goal of resource circulation, and if SL Corporation's role, such as reducing the amount of landfill, is coming to an end, it needs to find a future role, but there does not seem to be any movement toward that. This has been announced 10 years ago, but SL Corporation seems to have not been able to find a direction (for its new role) until now."

He also pointed out, “SL Corporation is in a situation where losses are increasing while quietly watching landfill volume decrease,” adding, “They say they have discovered a sludge drying business or a bio-gasification business, but they are incurring even more losses, so it seems difficult for them to become new businesses.”

Regarding this, Cho Kang-hee, CEO of SL Corporation, said, "We are working on new businesses, including landfill gas power generation, but we have not yet found a direction. We are continuing to make efforts internally even in difficult situations."