[Editorial] No Loopholes in Construction Corruption Laws

Rules that will prohibit construction company executives from working at their companies from up to a year if caught giving bribes or providing "entertainment in the course of trying to win contracts take effect at the end of this month. The "Basic Law on the Construction Industry" took effect on August 27 and the "Regulation Reform Committee" has now established specific ordinances for implementation. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation is finalizing its version of the ordinances.

The roots of irregularities in the construction industry run deep. According to prosecutors, 55 percent of all the bribery cases over the last 12 years originated in construction. There is widespread bribery and excessive entertaining of government officials by construction executives seeking to win contracts for public works or to gain special consideration. It is openly known that the subcontractors at the bottom of the food chain have to spend 10 to 20 percent of their expenses as gifts of appreciation and to entertain those that need to be impressed. The heads of many subcontracting companies have to produce fake receipts in order to file away all those expenditures, binding them into their own chain of illegality.

Construction companies say they understand the goal of the new measures but that they are too cruel. Some say that the measures should be applied to cases where the bribe was given at the direction of the head of the company or to when the bribe is over W200,000. While one does understand the logic about how it is hard for a company to keep watch on all its employees, those ideas are still unacceptable because they are about excusing irregularities for being on a small scale. Such proposals are themselves the result of thinking that is tainted by those corrupt practices. The Ministry of Construction and Transportation says it is going to go after even those who give bribes as small as a single penny. It has made the right decision. Bribery and inappropriate "entertainment" of officials by construction executives is kept quiet and therefore hard to eradicate even when laws are in place, so if various considerations are allowed there will be loopholes that loosen the controls. We hope the new measures make both the construction industry and our economy cleaner than they have been before, and that this becomes an opportunity for subcontractors to break free from the chains of irregularities.

The Hankyoreh, 3 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]