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South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday ordered an inspection into a so-called four river refurbishment project, which had been completed under the Lee Myung-bak government.
Kim Su-hyun, Moon's senior secretary for social affairs, told a press briefing that President Moon ordered a policy inspection into the decision-making and implementation processes surrounding the four river restoration project.
Moon instructed the release of six dammed pools among the combined 16 beginning on June 1 to mitigate green tides ahead of the summer season.
The project was announced in June 2009, just six months after former President Lee Myung-bak won an election. Lee had offered the project as one of his core presidential pledges.
A total of 22 trillion won (19.7 billion U.S. dollars) was spent to prevent repeated flood and droughts and secure quality water by building 16 weirs, dredging riverbed sand and gravel and widening water channels.
It was the country's single largest construction project, but environmental activists and experts strongly accused it of deteriorating water quality and triggering green tides that hurt the ecosystem for aquatic plant and animal.
To finish the project before the end of Lee's five-year term, the construction was hurriedly made during a shorter period than expected.
In 2015, the anti-trust watchdog conducted a massive investigation into the project and charged 11 construction firms with collusion and price-fixing. The firms were fined a total of 120 billion won.
Kim, Moon's senior social affairs secretary, told reporters that the policy inspection was not aimed to find out any wrongdoings of individuals, but to determine any illegality in the decision-making and implementation processes.
However, he said that if any clear illegality or wrongdoing is found from the inspection, corresponding measures will be inevitably taken.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
