Bae Hyun-jin of the People Power Party on Oct. 20 raised allegations that the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) submitted falsified on-site inspection reports and entered into private contracts.
According to materials Bae received from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), of the 979 contracts requiring submission of on-site inspection reports, only 957 reports were actually submitted.
Of the 957 reports submitted, 906, or 95%, were prepared without any travel records. The aggregates of the private contracts concluded based on those reports amounted to 93.34 billion won.
Since November 2022, the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has stipulated in its internal rules that, to prevent contracts with shell companies, when entering private contracts exceeding 22 million won, the company must conduct an on-site inspection of the vendor and submit a report.
Bae argued that the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has for years fabricated travel reports by recycling old photos. Bae said, "This is not about a specific contract or the deviation of a few employees, but a grave situation in which the entire organization of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is falsely managing private contracts," and added, "How can the public trust 80 billion won in private contracts that proceed in the dark each year without disclosure procedures or bidding?"