It has emerged that the company brought in to carry out the battery transfer during the fire at the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) in Daejeon, which paralyzed government computer networks, had no prior experience with similar work. In the process, there were also indications that illegal subcontracting took place.
The Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency said at a briefing on the 22nd that, in addition to charges of occupational negligence causing fire, it is currently investigating five contractors involved in the project on suspicion of illegal subcontracting.
Earlier, at the NIRS headquarters in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, at about 8:15 p.m. on the 26th of last month, a fire broke out while a "uninterruptible power supply (UPS)" transfer was underway in a fifth-floor computer room. The contractor failed to follow basic manuals such as cutting power and discharging the batteries.
According to police, the NIRS selected two firms, including an electrical contractor referred to as Company A, through an open competitive bid as battery relocation contractors. Company A subcontracted the work, and that firm in turn re-subcontracted it to two other firms. Under the Electrical Construction Business Act, it is, in principle, prohibited for an electrical construction prime contractor to subcontract work.
A police official said, "Regarding the suspected illegal subcontracting, we plan to investigate after obtaining and analyzing related documents from the Public Procurement Service and the local governments in charge of permits."
It was found that not only the subcontractors but all five project-related firms, including the prime contractor, had no experience installing UPS systems for transfer. Field workers reportedly told police that, regarding the guidelines for separating and relocating lithium batteries, they "didn't know well."
To perform a battery transfer, the state of charge must drop below 30%, but at the time of the fire it was 90%. Police believe that, considering the correction factor, the actual state of charge was about 80%.
The workers were senior technicians who had obtained electrical-related certifications and accumulated years of experience in the same industry. Only one was a junior technician who had obtained a certification not long before. Police secured statements that, during the work, they did not use insulating gear such as work clothes and tools.