The "safety management expense," an essential fund to prevent accidents at construction sites, is expected to be calculated and deployed on site in a more systematic way.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 30th that it established the "practical manual for calculating and executing construction safety management expenses" to secure a practical safety budget at construction sites with the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS) and to enhance transparency in execution.
The safety management expense stipulated in the Construction Technology Promotion Act is an expense used to create a safe construction environment, such as ensuring passage safety around construction sites and preventing damage to facilities. Originally, when the building owner or client reflects it in the construction cost at the contract stage, Sigongsa receives it and uses it on site. However, because there have been no clear calculation standards by item, the budget set by each client has varied excessively, and the calculation method has been complicated, leading to continued complaints that the on-site needs were not adequately funded.
To address these on-site difficulties, the government included practical, work-focused solutions in the manual. First, by closely analyzing budget-setting cases at major public institutions, it specified the average number of professional technicians and unit price standards投入 for each item, such as safety inspections and monitoring.
It offered options so ordering entities can more easily calculate an appropriate budget. It also compiled appendixes with average budget levels and best practices by type and size of construction, helping clients reasonably gauge the budget level that precisely fits their project.
In particular, it clearly drew the line with similar systems that have caused the most confusion on site. It presented a concise comparison of the uses and execution standards of the "safety management expense" under the Construction Technology Promotion Act and the "industrial safety and health management expense" under the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL)'s Occupational Safety and Health Act. While the former focuses on the safety of facilities, structures, and the environment around construction sites, the latter centers on the physical protection and health of on-site workers, eliminating functional overlap and confusion between the two laws by making this distinction clear.
The newly prepared guidelines are available to anyone through the library menu within the "construction work safety management integrated information system." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS) plan to carry out extensive training and promotion for construction project stakeholders going forward.
Kim Myeong-jun, director-general for technology and safety policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), said, "With the establishment of this manual, we expect the safety management expense to be practically utilized on site, creating a safe construction environment where construction project participants can work with confidence."