Public Companies Gave Free Housing to Staff

Five subsidiaries under the Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Ministry have been found to have used tax money of 380 billion won (310 million U.S. dollars) to provide employees with free housing.

They borrowed housing units for employees under their company names after being told by the Board of Audit and Inspection not to provide public employees with interest-free housing loans.

Lawmaker Huh Cheon of the ruling Grand National Party obtained reports on this matter from Korea National Housing Corp., Korea Expressway Corp., Korea Water Resources Corp., Korea Land Corp. and Korean Airport Corp. The five spent 386.7 billion won (316 million U.S. dollars) to provide 5,091 apartments to staff for free.

The housing company used the most units with 1,389 (deposit of 115.2 billion won), followed by the expressway corporation with 1,275 units (79.6 billion won); the water corporation 1,105 units (78.6 billion won); the land corporation with 1,045 units (96.4 billion won); and the airport corporation with 277 units (16.9 billion won).

Every married employee of the five companies was offered a free apartment as “rented residential housing.” Single employees were allowed to share a unit with two or three other employees.

As for the water corporation, if the deposit money in certain areas exceeded the housing loan limit of 85 million won, the company offered an additional loan with the lowest annual interest of two percent and served as a joint sponsor under the joint names policy.

koh@donga.com