A National Project Tainted by Bribery

A head of a measurement company has reportedly evaded taxes and bribed evaluators in charge of picking companies for the National Geographic Information System (NGIS) project to digitize information on streets, water supply facilities, the sewer system, and gas pipes across the country.

The Special Criminal Investigation Division of the National Police Agency announced on March 15 that it issued an arrest warrant for four persons, including a man by the name of Won, the head of a company in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, and booked 20 others, including a professor at K University only known as Mr. Kim (44) without arrest.

The police said that Won is charged with evading taxes by forging bills using the “co-construction project for streets and underground facilities blueprint for 2004 and 2005” ordered by the Chuncheon City Office in 2004, and made a bribe of around 3 billion won.

Won is also suspected of giving 5.35 million won in bribes – 1.85 million won for entertaining and 2.5 million won in the form of gift certificates -- to four professors who worked as evaluators in the evaluation of technology on the co-construction of underground facilities in Chuncheon, Sokcho and Gangneung for 2005 and 2006.

The NGIS is a national project the government has invested 720 billion won in between 1995 and 2005, and will put in an additional 1.5 trillion won from 2006 to 2010.

turtle@donga.com