Lawmakers Get Transport Industry Money

One out of four donors who gave more than 1.2 million won in 2005 to members of the Construction and Transportation Committee in the National Assembly (CTC) were involved in the transportation and construction industry, according to a Dong-A Ilbo study.

CTC members ranked first in terms of the largest sum of funds per person (about 48 million won) among 14 standing committees, and second in terms of total donations per person (about 133 million won), proving that the committee has ample funds.

Dong-A Ilbo analyzed the donation statement of the supporters’ association for representatives submitted to the National Election Commission (NEC) and found out that as of the end of last October, 386 supporters donated large sums of over 1.2 million won to 26 members of the CTC.

When this paper checked the jobs, ages, and addresses of the donors on the NEC corporate database list, it found that 97 (25.1 percent) of those who donated large sums were working in areas directly related to the CTC, such as the CEO of a construction company.

Only 70 or 18.1 percent were not working in the construction and transportation industry. Among large-sum donors, 167 or 43.2 percent were doing jobs either directly or indirectly related to the committee’s work.

A total of 156 donors, or 40.5 percent, reported that they are just running businesses, making it difficult to know a job-donation relationship, and 63 or 16.3 percent were not corporate officials.

The report revealed that Lee Ho-woong of the ruling Uri Party raised 63.5 million won, the largest amount, from personnel working in the related industry. Lee was the Uri Party Chief Secretary of the CTC and is currently chairman of the committee.

Huh Tae-yeol of the Grand National Party raised 34 million won, the second largest, and Chong Jang-sun of the Uri Party raised 26.8 million won.

The president of a taxi company donated 17 million won to five committee members of both the ruling and opposition parties, the most generous donation to the committee. Four officials from a large conglomerate offered a total of 17 million won to seven members, coming out to two to three million won each.

Under current political fund raising law, an individual can donate no more than 20 million won a year and five million won to one parliamentarian a year.

The total amount of donations raised by CTC members was some 3.458 billion won, and each member raised an average of 134.2 million won, ranking second following the Finance and Economy Committee. When it comes to large sum donation, however, the average political fund per CTC member amounted to some 48 million won, one and a half times larger than the 32.2 million won average donation overall.

Eleven Uri Party members raised 566.2 million won, 13 Grand National Party members 549.8 million won, and Democratic Party members 132.9 million won. The CTC raised 2.13 billion won in 2004, raking first among the 14 standing committees.