Enormous Appetite of Bribe-Loving Public Service Officials

The ill-behaviors of staffs at Iksan City Hall and S Management Body, which were discovered by the Special Police Inspection Team on May 23, are beyond thinkable. Not only did they continuously collect money envelopes but they have been receiving extra money and assistance for business trips and vacations. They even charged car wash expenses to a construction company. The target was S Construction Company who had received a construction work contract for building a sewage disposal area as ordered by Iksan City.

According to the police on May 23, the amount of money and valuables that the 9 staffs at Iksan City Hall and the Management Body had received from the construction company since the time of the contract on January 2001, amounted to over 120 million won. Iksan City Hall received all the funds in cash rather than in checks to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.

The behavior of those from the Management Body, who are supposedly correctional government officials, is even more disturbing. These people even charged the construction company expenses for alarm clocks in the office (30,000 won), a shoe case (80,000 won), trip expenses (1 million won), and vacation expenses (1.1 million won), as well as other valuable products and entertainment fees. Moreover, they had the construction company pay car washing fees (25,000 won) for the Chief Director. The owner of the construction company even paid for a gift box of grapes (200,000 won), which the Director took to City Hall.

Not being able to withstand the frequent requests of the staffs, the president of the construction company finally gave up the work and soon was arrested by the police because he started blackmailing the staffs to pay back all the money they had received. According to investigators, it was discovered that the president had asked Iksan City Hall to pay three times (350 million won) the amount he had used for the bribe (120 million won).

It goes the same for the behavior of bribes with public enterprises. The Yongsan Police Station of Seoul has requested an arrest warrant of Chief Lee (42 years old) and four executives from Korea Electric Power Corporation for receiving about 120 million won in money and valuables last year from S Productions, a printing company. The police have indicted Manager Lee (47 years old) along with 7 others without detention on the same charges.

Lee and the others are under suspicion for receiving about 120 million won in money and valuables from S Productions in return for allowing production to supply advertisements, report forms and other various printing jobs for the corporation. According to police records, they also charged the company with housing tax for high officials, car maintenance fees, and cellular phone expenditures.

The executives of Korea Electric Power Corporation had used devious methods for allowing S Production to charge about 20 ~ 25% more on products in order for the printing company to regain the money they spent.

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