▲ Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks during the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government held at Seoul City Hall on the 19th.
The parliamentary audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government by the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, held today (the 19th), sparked a fierce debate over the "Hangang Bus rebate allegations" even before the main questioning began.
Lawmakers from the Democratic Party of Korea reprimanded the city, stating through requests for data submission and procedural remarks that "Seoul is refusing to submit relevant data on the grounds that it is under investigation or constitutes local autonomous affairs."
Representative Cho In-chul of the Democratic Party of Korea urged, "We requested data regarding the Hangang Bus rebate allegations, but received a response that it cannot be submitted because an investigation is underway. We have only secured some attached materials without draft or official implementation documents. If they cannot give us the draft documents, they should at least provide the implementation documents."
In response, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon replied, "I will review whether there is an obligation to submit them."
Representative Huh Young of the Democratic Party of Korea also pointed out, "Not a single piece of data requested by our office has been submitted," demanding the submission of follow-up measures implemented by Seoul since the Board of Audit and Inspection dismissed the public interest audit request regarding the Hangang Bus in October of last year, records of reports made to the Mayor regarding this, and lists of responsible departments and personnel.
Representative Jung Il-yong of the Democratic Party of Korea criticized, "Seoul is withholding a tremendous amount of data for the national audit. If they claim it is difficult to submit because it involves local autonomous affairs, why on earth are we conducting a national audit?"
Representative Kim Nam-geun of the Democratic Party of Korea stated, "It is shocking that the Hangang Bus, which is reportedly used by 700,000 citizens, was built by a company that has never built a ship before and does not even have a dock to build one. Furthermore, the fact that 10 percent of the ship's construction cost was given as a rebate directly proves that the construction itself was substandard."
Representative Kim emphasized, "There must also be an accurate explanation regarding allegations that (Seoul) destroyed audit investigation materials. An exact investigation must be conducted into the fact that this case was virtually buried for a year after the audit materials were destroyed."
He also mentioned, "Regarding this case, I believe the Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation (SH) itself has problems."
On this day, Representative Jung Il-yong also criticized the explanatory materials previously released by Seoul regarding the Hangang Bus rebate allegations.
Sharpening his tone, he said, "Ho Jun-seok, spokesperson for the Seoul Metropolitan Government, released a statement framing the national audit as a 'political offensive by the Democratic Party.' If things are done this way, won't the exact same thing happen even after today's audit concludes? Did we come here to stage a political offensive?"
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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