Oh Se-hoon rebuffs Han River ferry kickback allegations, calls them 'political attack'

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon pushed back Monday against Democratic Party lawmakers' allegations of kickbacks in the Han River ferry project during a National Assembly audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying there is no evidence that money was passed to employees of the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation and dismissing the claims as a political attack.

Democratic Party lawmakers launched a barrage of criticism over the city's refusal to submit documents and its alleged delay in referring the case to investigators — even before the formal questioning session had begun.

Democratic Party lawmaker Jo In-cheol said his office had requested documents related to the Han River ferry kickback allegations but was refused on the grounds that the case was under investigation. Oh said he would review whether the city was obligated to submit the materials.

Fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Heo Young demanded that the city hand over records of follow-up measures taken after the Board of Audit and Inspection rejected a public-interest audit request related to the Han River ferry last October, along with reports made to the mayor and a list of the departments and officials involved. He also noted that his office had not received a single document it had requested.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-geun raised concerns that a company with no shipbuilding experience or facilities had manufactured the Han River ferries used by 700,000 residents. Kim said the city must provide a clear explanation of allegations that audit investigation records were destroyed, and called for a thorough probe into suspicions that the matter had been effectively buried for a year after the destruction of those records.

Oh rebuffed the criticism, saying the city had been continuously investigating the allegations. He said the city had conducted 23 rounds of investigation and preparation between July 23 and Oct. 14 — just before the National Assembly's Interior and Safety Committee audit — including three document requests, one on-site inspection, four interviews with those involved, and several phone calls.

He added that the city had been unable to disclose the details of its investigation during the Interior and Safety Committee audit because the relevant materials had not yet been compiled, and said interviews with senior Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation officials continued through last month.

Oh said he viewed the Democratic Party's conduct as "a political attack." He called it "truly outrageous" that lawmaker Kim had, in an earlier procedural statement, characterized the case as a "1.5 billion won ($1.12 million) kickback incident."

Oh said kickbacks and brokerage fees must be distinguished, noting that paying brokerage fees is standard practice in the shipbuilding industry. He said the brokerage fee identified at the time was 320 million won, and that a commission of around 1 percent is typically paid for small vessels.

Oh drew a line, saying there was "absolutely no evidence" that any kickback had reached employees of the Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation. "Whether 300 million won or 340 million won went as a brokerage fee, some portion of it would have to have gone to a Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation employee for it to be a kickback," he said. "Do the Democratic Party lawmakers have any evidence that a kickback reached a Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation employee? It is nothing but suspicion."

Questioning also turned to whether audit records had been destroyed or the allegations concealed. When People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jeong-jae asked whether Oh had ever ordered the destruction or concealment of documents related to the Han River ferry, Oh denied it.

Ju Jae-wan, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's investigation division, said he did not recall briefing Oh on the investigation referral in a separate face-to-face meeting.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government said in a written statement that, because it had decided to file a public-interest audit request with the Board of Audit and Inspection rather than refer the case to investigators, it had instructed staff to maintain strict information security and exercise caution in managing and securing the related materials. The city said the documents are currently held by its audit committee, adding that hard copies were destroyed while digital files were password-protected for security.

Oh said he referred the Han River ferry kickback allegations to police on Friday — the day after the Interior and Safety Committee audit — and that a Seoul Housing & Communities Corporation executive linked to the allegations was suspended from duties and removed from his post the same day.