Minister Byeon Chang-heum “LH speculation case, part of the deviation…Endless story of integrity as the president”

Input 2021.03.09 16:08 | Revision 2021.03.09 16:44

“Unfair profits of employees involved in speculation, as much as possible to recover”
Responsibility for the repeated resignation of Noo, “a sense of heavy responsibility”

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Byun Chang-heum said on the 9th, “We have been trying to improve and implement the system to suppress speculation in the new city, and as a result, some deviations have occurred” in relation to the allegations of land dumping in the new city of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) employees.

Minister Byeon attended the general meeting of the National Assembly’s Land Transport Committee this afternoon and responded to the criticism of Democratic Party lawmaker Jin Seong-joon that’we must thoroughly cut out the wrongdoings and privileges’ and replied, “I will prevent speculation again.”

The case that caused the government’s trust in real estate policies to be shaken from the ground up was defined as a’partial deviation’ by replacing all members of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and LH as a subject of investigation suspected of being a’potential speculator’. With such remarks, it seems difficult for Minister Byeon to avoid pointing out that he has not properly grasped the seriousness of the current situation. Prior to this, when the Commission began on this day, Minister Byeon showed a tumultuous appearance by saying, “I take full responsibility for the occurrence of an unpleasant thing, and express my deep apology to the people and members of the committee.”

When asked by Justice Party lawmaker Shim Sang-jeong,’Is there anything I took to prevent corruption while serving as the president of LH for two years?’ During this period, he said, “The reason for the existence of public enterprises is transparency and integrity.”

When Assemblyman Shim demanded that the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Land who is insensitive to speculation should immediately resign, Minister Byeon said, “For any reason, public institutions and employees of the Ministry of Land, which develop land publicly, should not speculate. I avoided the immediate reply, saying, “I have no enemies.” When asked again and again, “What do you think about the story of (the ministerial position) resigning,” Rep. Song Seok-joon replied, “I feel a heavy sense of responsibility.”

In addition, when asked by Democratic Party lawmaker Park Sang-hyuk,’Can you recover the unfair profits of LH employees who are suspected of speculation,’ Minister Byun said, “Basically, there are strict penalties for profits using internal secret information.” Regarding, LH’s internal regulations are also fully mobilized to recover unfair profits,” he said. “It will depend on how broadly the business secret is interpreted, but there is a precedent in the Supreme Court case that even information obtained indirectly through meetings of public officials is regarded as internal secret.” did.

Regarding this, LH CEO Jang Choong-mo said, “If you look at the various behaviors of employees, there are many speculative elements.”