Korea Land & Housing Corp. adopt measures to fight preferential treatment

Lee Han-jun, the chief executive officer of LH, apologizes for the recent omission of steel bars in LH apartments at an emergency meeting held at the LH Seoul headquarters in Gangnam, Seoul, on Aug. 2. [Photo by Yonhap]

Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) is taking actions to address the issue of preferential treatment within its construction projects after an underground parking lot collapse in an apartment in Incheon’s Geomdan New Town in April and a series of follow-up inspections of other apartment complexes with underground parking garages built using flat slabs.

LH announced on Wednesday that it will be involving the police in investigating the construction, design, and supervision companies responsible for problematic underground parking garage constructions, while preventing future instances of favoritism towards former LH officials.

LH said it will also refrain from placing purchase orders for underground parking garages of flat slab structure, which has been the subject of controversy.

Lee Han-jun, the chief executive officer of LH, made these announcements during an emergency meeting held at the LH Seoul headquarters in Gangnam. The meeting focused on concrete measures to address issues of poor construction and eradicate construction cartels.

The company is determined to combat favoritism of former LH officials, a matter that President Yoon Suk Yeol has strongly criticized as a “cartel of interests.” LH decided to request the police to investigate the companies engaged in the design, construction, and supervision that caused poor construction of 15 apartment complexes and those involved on Friday. The housing corporation expects the police to reveal whether preferential treatments were granted through the investigation. It also plans to file a civil lawsuit against the companies and ask the Korea Fair Trade Commission to launch an investigation into possibilities of favoritism.

LH will consider giving extra points to companies without former LH officials during the bidding process for future projects to prevent the recurrence of shoddy construction. It also announced that it will set up a department dedicated to fight cartels and promote fair construction and operate it until favoritism disappears.

LH also plans to practically suspend issuing purchase orders for underground parking garages with a flat slab structure. “There is no problem with the design method itself, and it just hasn’t settled down yet,” Lee said. “We will avoid (orders) to the extent possible going forward. It will be applied where it is absolutely necessary, but otherwise we will avoid it as much as possible.”

For the 15 apartment complexes that were found to have been constructed poorly, LH said it will proceed with reinforcement work. It has already completed the reinforcement for three of the 15 complexes, including Block A3 in Suseo Station area, and plans to finish the rest by the end of September. The reinforcement work will be carried out in seven types of construction methods that have been recently verified by the Korea Concrete Institute after a detailed safety inspection conducted by inspection companies selected by the residents.