The police have launched a forced investigation into the allegation that former Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hwang Hee proposed a bill to permit the Korea Water Resources Corporation’s profit-making business and received support in return.
According to the police on the 12th, the anti-corruption and public crime investigation team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency raided the headquarters of the Water Resources Corporation in Daejeon earlier this month and is currently analyzing the confiscated material.
Suspicions of Hwang’s financial support were raised in February last year when he was a candidate for the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. According to Rep. Kim Ye-ji, People’s Strength, former Minister Hwang proposed an amendment to allow the Water Resources Corporation, a supervised agency, to conduct profit-making business in March 2018 while under the Land, Transport and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, and the bill passed the plenary session in July of the same year.
The amended bill contains contents that allow the project operator to make a private contract for land, etc., or directly build and lease buildings, etc.
At that time, the Korea Water Resources Corporation might not directly build, lease, or operate buildings on the land where the Eco Delta City in Busan would be built, but as the amendment bill proposed by former Minister Hwang passed the National Assembly, it was able to remove obstacles to the project.
After the bill was passed, it is known that an executive from the Korea Water Resources Corporation donated a total of 10 million won to Hwang in 2019 and 2020, which is the maximum legal limit of 5 million won per person per year.
In response, the bar exam preparation student group filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to punish Hwang and the head of the Water Resources Corporation A for violating the Political Fund Act, and the case was transferred to the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul National Police Agency.
A police official said, “If more people are involved in the analysis of confiscated items, we plan to investigate further.”
(Seoul = News 1)