Audit Uncovers Suspected Qualification Lending Among 6,749 Forestry Technicians Following SBS Reports

Following a series of reports by SBS on the illegal lending of licenses and poor management practices by forestry corporations, the Board of Audit and Inspection has released the results of an urgent audit.

The Board of Audit and Inspection released its regular audit results for the Korea Forest Service today (July 27), revealing that 184 forestry technicians registered with forestry corporations were identified as deceased individuals, inmates, or overseas residents.

According to the Board, an investigation targeting 16,970 forestry technicians who had a history of being registered with 2,229 forestry corporations from 2023 to May of this year showed that 6,749 technicians across 1,663 corporations are likely to have lent or stolen their qualifications.

Specifically, there were 823 individuals whose cases were difficult to view as regular employment, such as lacking employment insurance or earned income, and 1,534 individuals with overlapping incomes whose earned income from other companies outside their forestry corporation was confirmed.

Along with this, a total of 6,664 individuals—including 4,307 people who had employment insurance and earned income records but earned small monthly incomes of 800,000 won or less—were deemed difficult to view as regular employees, raising the possibility of qualification lending or identity theft.

In addition, a separate on-site investigation based on personal information analysis revealed that 184 individuals (some overlapping) were in states where normal regular work was impossible, such as being deceased, incarcerated, or staying overseas.

Forty-seven technicians maintained their registration under corporate affiliation for more than three months even after a death report was filed, and among them, 9 were even newly registered to corporations after their death reports.

Furthermore, there were 25 inmates, 41 long-term overseas residents, and 71 individuals judged to require long-term care.

Consequently, the Board of Audit and Inspection notified the Korea Forest Service to utilize the related data for investigating the registration and management status of forestry technicians and to take appropriate measures, such as revoking corporate registrations based on the results.

Previously, the Government Joint Anti-Corruption Investigation Corps under the Office for Government Policy Coordination also recently announced interim results showing that approximately 900 forestry corporations were suspected of illegal acts such as technical qualification lending and dual employment, or failing to meet registration requirements, following a joint inspection on the implementation status of forestry projects.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.