The government has discovered that more than half of the forestry companies it inspected do not meet registration requirements. Over 4,700 forestry technicians are suspected of engaging in illegal activities such as credential lending and dual employment.
On October 16, the Government Policy Coordination Office's Anti-Corruption Task Force and the Korea Forest Service announced the results of a joint inspection of forestry operations at the Government Seoul Office. This inspection was part of the first phase of the National Normalization Project aimed at establishing a sound market order for forestry companies, conducted from May to October.
Out of 1,907 forestry companies and 12,463 forestry technicians examined, 1,073 companies were found to be lacking in registration requirements, representing 56% of the total inspected.
By type, 1,010 companies were suspected of hiring technical personnel through improper means such as credential lending. Additionally, 82 companies did not meet office facility requirements, and 99 companies fell short of capital requirements.
Among the forestry technicians, 4,716 (37.8%) are suspected of engaging in illegal activities like credential lending or dual employment. Some company representatives reportedly paid six technicians between 1 million and 1.5 million won annually to borrow their credentials.
There were also cases where credentials of deceased or incarcerated technicians were used. A total of 33 companies registered technicians who held credentials of 38 deceased individuals. The government has referred these companies to investigative authorities.
The existing management system has also proven ineffective. The detection rate of illegal companies in the annual inspections conducted by the Korea Forest Service was below 6%, and there were only 12 major administrative actions, such as cancellations of qualifications or registrations, in the past three years. Most of these actions were initiated through reports or notifications to investigative agencies.
The forestry technician information system is not linked to public information, such as employment insurance, making it unable to filter out credential lending and duplicate registrations. There are also no established criteria for canceling the credentials of deceased technicians.
On October 6, the government referred 342 companies and 401 technicians for investigation. It plans to conduct administrative actions against other suspected illegal entities following hearings and will select additional cases for investigation based on further inquiries.
The government will also increase penalties. The punishment for credential lending will be strengthened from a maximum of one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 million won to a maximum of three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won. The upper limit for fines imposed for insufficient registration requirements will also be raised from 50 million won to 100 million won.
To prevent companies with canceled registrations from evading sanctions by establishing new entities or through mergers and acquisitions, the restrictions on re-registration will be expanded to include not only the companies but also their representatives and those responsible for the violations. A system will be established to continuously verify credential lending and dual employment from the registration stage using public information such as technicians' employment insurance.
Additionally, the investigation revealed an excessive reliance on non-competitive contracts for forestry projects. A review of major forestry contracts from 2023 to last year found that 82.8% of contracts were awarded without competition. Non-competitive contracts accounted for 42% of small orders, while agency and consignment contracts with forestry cooperatives made up 41%.
The government also identified over 120 companies suspected of engaging in 'bid-rigging' by establishing multiple entities under family or acquaintances' names to participate in the same bids. Further investigations will be conducted to refer these unqualified companies for suspected contract awards and bid interference.
In response, the government plans to shift forestry contracts toward competitive bidding. The proportion of competitive contracts for national forest projects will increase from 52% this year to 70% next year, and 80% by 2030. A pre-review process will be implemented for non-competitive contracts.
Management deficiencies were also revealed in large-scale wildfire recovery projects. Inspections of 1,145 reforestation sites and 71 forest management project sites uncovered a total of 79 cases of suspected impropriety, including 56 in reforestation areas and 23 in forest management projects.
Among the inspected reforestation sites, 20% had a survival rate of planted trees below 50%. Out of 4,673 reforestation projects, only 1,620 (35%) had established defect guarantees, indicating varying management standards across contracting agencies.
The government plans to impose penalties for poor construction and oversight, recover and settle project costs, and implement corrective measures such as reforestation. It will also introduce a monitoring system to manage survival rates and establish legal grounds for defining defect guarantee responsibilities in reforestation projects.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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