Ruling-party lawmakers on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee call for additional witnesses and document submissions over Han River Bus allegations

[Financial News] Democratic Party lawmakers on the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee called for additional key officials to be selected as witnesses and for documents to be submitted in connection with alleged corruption in Seoul’s Han River Bus project. They plan to establish at Seoul’s parliamentary audit on the 19th how no request for an investigation was made into the allegations and whether there were orders to destroy investigation materials.
In a statement at a press conference, the Democratic Party lawmakers on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee said allegations had emerged of kickbacks in the selection of a company to build the Han River Bus vessels and bribery involving a senior SH Corporation executive. They claimed that the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Audit Committee had even drafted a request for an investigation, but no actual request followed, and that a public-interest whistleblower had also reported an order to destroy investigation materials.
They stressed that the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee’s audit should establish the specific circumstances surrounding the reports and instructions, noting that Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon had answered “I don’t remember” when asked at the Public Administration and Security Committee’s audit on the 15th whether he had been briefed on the request for an investigation. They said Jeong Sang-hoon, then head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Planning and Coordination Office, had likewise responded to the effect that he could not remember the specific details of the instructions.
According to the Democratic Party lawmakers on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, two of the nine witnesses they requested were selected: Jeong Sang-hoon, then head of the Planning and Coordination Office, and Park Jae-yong, former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Audit Committee. They pointed out, however, that key officials involved in the actual investigation of the alleged corruption and the drafting and reporting of the request for an investigation were left off the witness list.
They stressed that the Audit Committee’s investigation division chief and investigation team leader at the time were key officials who could explain the investigation into the allegations, the circumstances surrounding the drafting and reporting of the request for an investigation, whether the request was put on hold, and whether there were orders to destroy investigation materials.
They called for the circumstances surrounding the report to the mayor and the communication of instructions to be clarified, noting allegations that the mayor’s then-chief of staff had reported the request for an investigation to the mayor and later been involved in putting it on hold. They also argued that the former head of the Han River Project Promotion Task Force should explain the facts surrounding the selection of Gadeok Heavy Industries and the kickback allegations.
They said a request to have the public-interest whistleblower who raised the allegation of an order to destroy investigation materials appear as a reference witness had also been rejected. They argued that the whistleblower’s testimony was necessary to verify whether the request for an investigation had been reported to the mayor and who had ordered the referral to be halted and the materials destroyed.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s failure to submit documents also came under scrutiny. The Democratic Party lawmakers on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee said the city was refusing to submit the “Audit Issues Report” and the “Request for Investigation,” stressing that the two documents were key materials for verifying the signs of corruption reported to the mayor, the alleged offenses identified by the Audit Committee, and the circumstances in which no request for an investigation was made.
They criticized the city, saying, “The mayor says he doesn’t remember, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government is not submitting documents that could verify it,” and adding, “Without even testimony from key working-level officials, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee’s parliamentary audit will inevitably end in a war of words.”
They called on the People Power Party to cooperate in selecting additional key officials as witnesses and having the public-interest whistleblower appear as a reference witness. They urged the Seoul Metropolitan Government to submit the key documents immediately and Mayor Oh to cooperate fully in establishing whether he or those above him had been involved in halting the request for an investigation and ordering the destruction of investigation materials.
[email protected] Kim Hyung-gu Reporter