The Board of Audit and Inspection. [Yonhap]
The Board of Audit and Inspection. [Yonhap]

The cities of Siheung and Gunpo in Gyeonggi Province granted improper benefits to private developers during project approval processes, failed to collect billions of won in regional transit levies, and left a road underpass without mandatory fire-safety equipment, a government audit has found.

The Board of Audit and Inspection released its routine audit report on Siheung and Gunpo on Thursday, identifying 15 cases of illegal or improper conduct and ordering corrective action, cautions and notifications. It was the first routine audit of the two municipalities since 2016.

According to the findings, Siheung delayed imposing roughly 7.4 billion won ($5.3 million) in regional transportation facility levies on three housing construction projects for more than three years after receiving project approval notices in 2021.

Under relevant regulations, the levies must be imposed within 60 days of project plan approval. The city's transportation administration division took no action even after receiving the relevant information from the housing division. The audit board warned that the city risked losing its collection authority once the five-year statute of limitations expired, and called on the Siheung mayor to collect the outstanding levies and tighten internal procedures.

Auditors also found sweeping preferential treatment extended to a private developer, identified as Company A, in connection with a marine leisure complex project in the Geobukseon area of Sihwa Multi-Techno Valley.

In 2018, Siheung waived Company A's obligation — contrary to the original public tender guidelines — to donate marina facilities, including a yacht clubhouse, to the city. The city later agreed to receive land instead of building the facilities itself at a cost of 16.05 billion won, but an appraisal valued the donated land at only 5.32 billion won, effectively delivering a financial benefit of 10.73 billion won to Company A. The city also arbitrarily relaxed a requirement that tourist accommodation of 200 rooms or more be restricted from pre-sale, reclassifying the units as general lodging facilities and allowing Company A to generate 82.7 billion won in revenue through pre-sales of lifestyle accommodation units.

Auditors further found poor management of district-unit planning in Siheung. The city improperly credited road and park installation costs by housing developers in the Eunhaeng 2 district as donated floor area, resulting in excess floor-area ratios of 26.5 percentage points and 63.4 percentage points for the Block B and Block C developers, respectively. The developers were thereby able to put an additional 83 and 313 housing units up for pre-sale.

Gunpo was found to have a serious gap in road safety management. While installing noise-barrier tunnels over the Daeyaji underpass and the Samsung underpass along National Route 47 — two sections that form a continuous tunnel — the city carried out side-wall opening work only at the Samsung underpass. The Daeyaji underpass, which stretches 382 meters, was left in operation with no evacuation facilities or other mandatory fire-safety equipment installed.

The audit board warned that a fire inside the Daeyaji noise-barrier tunnel could cause mass casualties due to limited smoke ventilation and insufficient evacuation space, and notified the Gunpo mayor to draw up remedial measures.


sunpine@heraldcorp.com