Actor Shin Hyun-joon. [Newsis]
Actor Shin Hyun-joon. [Newsis]

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has come under fire over favoritism allegations after awarding a 375.65 million won ($276,000) promotional video production contract to a company run by the spouse of actor Shin Hyun-joon, whom the city had appointed as an honorary mayor. The city rebuffed the allegations, saying the honorary role and the professional video production work were separate matters and that the contract was awarded based on the firm's production experience and capabilities.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Council on Thursday, Yoon Seon-hee, a lawmaker on the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea representing Jongno District 1, raised questions Wednesday during an administrative audit of the city's public relations planning office about the appropriateness of promotional video contracts awarded to companies linked to honorary mayors and goodwill ambassadors.

According to Yoon, a company called Jays & River — whose representative is Shin's spouse — signed a contract to produce Seoul city YouTube videos featuring Shin. The total contract value was 375.65 million won.

"The company's original business is fashion and bags — it only added a new business category to its registration," Yoon said. "It is already hard to understand how the city awarded a contract simply because the firm is run by an honorary mayor's spouse, but do you think it is justified for a bag company to win a public video contract worth hundreds of millions of won?"

Whether the city had reviewed the firm's video production track record at the time of the contract also became a point of contention.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said it does not review a company's track record when awarding a sole-source contract.

Asked whether the city had confirmed whether the firm produced the videos directly or subcontracted the work, officials said they were "not aware of the detailed contract arrangements" and that the work "would naturally have been handled in accordance with regulations."

The city said it would "closely examine the appropriateness of the contract and the promotional effectiveness of the content to ensure the budget is spent transparently and efficiently."

Jays & River said in response that it had produced multiple pieces of branded content for the city "before Shin's appointment as honorary mayor," adding that the Seoul-related content work "was not a new project that began after the honorary mayor appointment."

Meanwhile, a contract with a company led by Shu-ka (real name Jeon Seok-jae), an economics YouTuber serving as a Seoul city goodwill ambassador, also came under scrutiny.

Yoon said Shu-ka's Friends produced 21 promotional videos for the city from January last year through September this year for a total of 406.56 million won.

"If the city puts someone out front as an unpaid honorary goodwill ambassador while quietly channeling more than 400 million won in production fees to a company that person leads, that amounts to backdoor favoritism," Yoon said.

Yoon urged the city to "thoroughly inspect and correct contracting practices across all Seoul city agencies to ensure that public tax money is never again funneled to family-linked firms under the cover of honorary positions."


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com