[Stock Disclosure - Public Procurement Service Selects Yeongjin Construction for Ukraine Highway Restoration!]
[Stock Disclosure - Public Procurement Service Selects Sinhae Construction for Ukraine Railway and Port Restoration!]
One month after the announcement of Ukraine’s reconstruction.
With all public bids concluded, the KOSPI market was shaken once again.
Sixty billion dollars, amounting to 90 trillion won in Korean currency, was nothing if not a colossal batch of contracts. Accordingly, the companies selected in the bidding were set to enjoy another special boom.
[Is Spring Returning to the Construction Industry? Construction Theme Stocks Close Strong, Up 10%!]
Among them, the sector heating up the most was, of course, construction.
In fact, a considerable portion of Europe and America’s reconstruction packages were also in construction. Where guns, artillery, and shells had swept through, restoring buildings was the most urgent task of all.
To rebuild the roads, ports, and civilian housing destroyed after the war would require a budget of at least hundreds of trillions, and as a result, the construction industry could not help but receive more attention than anyone else.
-Rather than joy at winning the project, what comes first is a sense of responsibility to help the people of Ukraine. With the mindset that we represent Korea, we will take part in the reconstruction project honestly and meticulously.
PM Construction, which had won the largest contract, answered the reporters with solemn faces. The shareholders responded to that sincerity by buying up its stock.
And no wonder. The order PM had won in this project amounted to roughly 500 billion won, enough to feed the company for an entire year. It was as if a 500-unit apartment complex on prime land in Seoul had suddenly rolled right into their laps.
“…What’s going on? Do you know anything?”
“I don’t know either… This is strange.”
But one day after the bidding ended.
The presidents of the construction companies were suddenly gathered in one place at the summons of the Administrator of the Public Procurement Service.
The one who had called them in was the administrator who had led this bidding process, but the fact that he had summoned only the construction companies left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
As everyone poured out their concerns, President Kim of PM Construction, who had led the bid-rigging, spoke curtly.
“Look here. Have you all gotten so timid just because there hasn’t been much work lately? It doesn’t seem like anything serious, so why are you all so scared?”
“President Kim… isn’t the atmosphere too strange for you to say that? There are countless reconstruction projects, but only us construction companies were called in.”
“It’s probably because there’s so much work. They may have called in the other industries on a different day.”
“That’s not it. What if the Public Procurement Service found out about our collusion…”
“Hey!”
President Kim reacted as if he had been stung.
“We haven’t even met him yet, so why do you keep saying such unlucky things? If that had been caught, they would’ve gathered us at the Fair Trade Commission, not called us to the Public Procurement Service, wouldn’t they?”
“…Now that you mention it, that’s true.”
“Don’t shrink back. Just remember one thing clearly. With collusion, if one guy confesses, everyone dies together.”
Thanks to President Kim’s outstanding leadership, the other presidents were able to put their minds at ease.
In truth, the greatest enemy of bid-rigging was not the Fair Trade Commission, but whistleblowing from within. As long as they trusted one another, there was absolutely no way for outsiders to find out.
The presidents exchanged looks and made a silent promise. They would never say anything foolish in front of the officials.
And so, even deciding on an order and entering separately, they proceeded to complete the perfect crime.
“Good day, Administrator. I am Kim Iseong, president of PM Construction.”
“Good to see you. It’s been quite a while. Have you been well?”
“Thanks to you, Administrator.”
“Thanks to me? Hardly. Haha.”
“Not at all. Thanks to the government giving us such a major project, we were finally able to catch our breath. I sincerely thank you, the President, and the Prime Minister as well.”
As expected, it had been needless worry.
The Administrator of the Public Procurement Service welcomed the construction company presidents gathered in one place with a generous smile.
Thanks to that, the presidents were also able to exchange very pleasant greetings with the evaluators who had participated in selecting the contractors.
“By the way, is there a reason you called us separately like this…?”
“To encourage you. As you know, this reconstruction project means that you have been chosen to represent the nation. That is why the Blue House is also paying special attention to it.”
“Ah, yes, yes.”
“You are all people who understand, so I won’t go on at length. Since you are going as representatives of the nation, please make sure the quantities of rebar and concrete are correct, and please meet your deadlines.”
“Please don’t worry. We will handle everything without any trouble.”
“That is reassuring.”
The administrator said that and called over one man.
“Ah, and please greet him. This is Team Leader Lee Sejun from the Pension Fund Risk Management Team. He was deeply involved in this bidding project as well.”
“Ah, yes, yes. Good day, Team Leader Lee.”
The presidents bowed politely to the young man with the youthful face.
“Yes, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to working with you.”
The young man responded with a bright expression as well.
“That is all I wanted to say. In truth, today, rather than me, Team Leader Lee here has something he insists on saying to all of you. Since a considerable portion of this Ukraine loan comes from the pension fund, please pay close attention to the pension fund’s request.”
“Understood. Thank you.”
“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”
The administrator said that and left the room. Only the youthful-faced young man and the weathered-looking company presidents remained in the conference room.
“…”
For a brief moment, the presidents subtly studied the young man’s face.
He did not look like anything special. Just a young man in his early thirties. Even if he had passed the civil service examination, he was still a rookie official with no more seniority than a newly commissioned second lieutenant.
Surely no bombshell would come from a greenhorn like this. At most, he had probably come to say that the head of the pension fund asked for their cooperation.
After silence flowed for a moment, the young man rummaged through the bidding documents and then spoke with an innocent face.
“Rather than doing this here, shall we just go straight to the Fair Trade Commission?”
-…Pardon?
*
By the time I had asked the same thing for the fifth time, the presidents’ faces had gradually begun to crumble.
“I’ll ask one last time. How much bid-rigging did you do?”
And at the sixth question, no one could answer. As expected, there was no money safer or tastier than tax money.
“Team Leader. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
But while everyone was confessing with their expressions, there was still one man who refused to give in. It was PM Construction, which had received the most work in this bidding.
“What do you mean by bid-rigging, and what do you mean by winning bidders and cover bidders? No, setting everything else aside, I find it rather rude for the pension fund to bring up something like this.”
I smiled bitterly. As the bastard stepped forward, the other presidents who had been confessing with their faces began to regain their confidence.
“We construction companies have never done such a thing, and I also do not believe it is appropriate for this sort of talk to come up in a place like this. If you continue interrogating us like this, we will speak directly to the Administrator of the Public Procurement Service and prove our innocence.”
“Really?”
“Yes!”
I held out the documents.
“Then explain these bidding materials. How can there be such a large discrepancy between the estimates of the winning bidder and the bidding companies?”
“It’s bad enough that we failed to win the work, but now we have to be falsely accused over why we failed too?”
“It’s too contrived to call it a false accusation. How very coincidental that every construction company took home work in this bidding, isn’t it? How can the work be divided up so neatly, like a map of Africa?”
In truth, their collusion was extremely clumsy.
The volume of work had been divided up as neatly as African borders. Unless someone had drawn the map with a ruler, such a sight could never have appeared.
“And this part is strange too. Sangyeong Construction bid 20 billion won for the highway project, but for the landscaping project, it bid 13 billion won. You’re the same construction company, so why is there such a large gap between the project you won and the project you failed to win?”
“That’s…”
“President Kim, I’ll ask one last time. If just one person confesses, this whole matter ends. Shall we go to the Fair Trade Commission?”
It was a long battle of nerves.
When I glared at him and spoke, President Kim of PM Construction finally shut his mouth. Starting with him, the other construction company presidents, whose expressions had been reviving, lowered their heads again.
“Start with the highway bid. How much was it? How much did the winning bidder and the cover bidders inflate the construction cost?”
When the entire situation was over, the confessions came pouring out smoothly.
It was truly the perfect example of cooking porridge only to feed it to the dog.
I had bought Russian bonds through a Chinese fund company, written them off, received missile technology in exchange, gone to Europe and fought a war of nerves because of it… and after all that, I had barely reached an agreement on a 60-billion-dollar loan to Ukraine. Yet our construction companies had skimmed 100 billion won in just a few months.
Truly, it seemed there were separate people who earned the money and separate people who pocketed it.
“Lastly, President Kim. How much did PM Construction inflate the private housing project rights by?”
“…”
“Judging by this, it doesn’t seem like a cover-bidder strategy, but rather a division of work. You inflated the construction cost to win the project, and then intended to split the work with Daeseong Construction?”
Once the whole story was exposed, President Kim bowed his head, trembling like an aspen.
“T-Team Leader, I have committed a mortal sin. I am truly sorry. Because of the cold wave that recently hit the industry, I wasn’t in my right mind.”
Starting with him, everyone rose from their seats.
-T-That’s right, Team Leader. We weren’t in our right minds.
-We are truly sorry. Please let it go just this once.
-The construction industry is really on the verge of death. Please, just this once…
I smiled bitterly and said,
“You should listen until a person finishes speaking. I never said I would take the work back.”
-…Pardon?
“Domestic public opinion is already divided over support for Ukraine. It would not be good for noise to arise over something like this as well. So if possible, I intend to let it pass quietly.”
-Th-Thank you. Then we will submit honest estimates again.
-Yes, we promise! Since we made this mistake, during the Ukraine reconstruction project, we will make sure to use the proper amounts of rebar and concrete, and ensure we do nothing to disgrace the Taegeukgi!
“There is no need for that. I’m sure the industry has its circumstances, so please take the construction costs as they are.”
-Y-Yes? Pardon?
I looked at them.
“But it can’t be for free. There is one thing I would like to ask of you.”
-P-Please tell us anything. We’ll do anything at all.
“Please share your cabinet lists with me.”
The conference room froze over again in an instant.
-What do you mean by that…?
“Given the nature of the industry, construction can’t help but be closely tied to political circles. I’m sure all of you have political figures your companies have put effort into cultivating.”
-T-Team Leader?
“Anyone is fine. Ruling party, opposition party, third party, former officials, current officials—anyone at all is fine. Then I’ll make this matter disappear cleanly. What do you say?”