The President’s Office signed a direct contract with a company that was not even registered on the ‘Nara Market’, where competitive bidding for various projects ordered by the government and public institutions takes place, and produced a video promoting the safety of contaminated water from Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. As it turns out, controversy is expected.
As a result of coverage by the Hankyoreh on the 6th, it was confirmed that the advertising film and video production company KK was responsible for producing the video ‘The truth about contaminated water in Fukushima as told by Korea’s top experts’, for which the President’s Office spent a budget of 38 million won. .
Company K, which was introduced only as a ‘small and medium-sized company established on July 12, 2018’ on the recruitment agency site, does not operate a separate스포츠토토 website, so its past performance is not properly known. The Public Procurement Service recently responded to an inquiry from the office of Democratic Party lawmaker Wi Sung-gon, saying, “Company K is a company that is not registered in Nara Marketplace, the national comprehensive electronic procurement system.” Suspicion is growing over how a virtually unknown company, which is not registered in the National Marketplace and therefore cannot participate in competitive bidding by public institutions such as the government that utilizes the system, entered into a private contract with the Presidential Office.
This 4-minute 25-minute video contains content to the effect that ‘Fukushima contaminated water is not dangerous,’ and after the video was released, criticism was raised that the President’s Office was ‘advocating the discharge of contaminated water on behalf of the Japanese government.’ Currently, all details of the Presidential Office’s contract related to the production of the Truth About Contaminated Water video are kept confidential.
In response to the Hankyoreh’s question about the details of the contract with this company, the President’s Office only said, “The relevant contract was implemented through legal procedures in accordance with relevant laws such as the National Contract Act.” He added, “It is difficult to disclose specific contract details for reasons such as management and business secrecy of corporations, organizations, and individuals, and please understand that previous governments have also kept them confidential for reasons such as security management of the President’s Office.” The company representative also did not respond to repeated phone calls and text messages from the Hankyoreh.
It is pointed out that the President’s Office’s decision to turn a video production-related contract, which was open to the entire nation, into a private matter is a violation of regulations. The Enforcement Decree of the National Contract Act (Article 92-2) provides for government contracts only in exceptional cases, such as ‘when it is necessary to secretly carry out the actions of state agencies, such as operational troop movements, national security, national defense planning, and intelligence activities.’ This is because information is kept private.
Rep. Wi Gon Wi said, “It looks like we need to further confirm how the contract was made with a company whose performance has not been properly disclosed.” He added, “For the President’s Office to not disclose related contract details without a valid reason is only raising suspicions about how the video was produced.” criticized.