(image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Following the release by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) of a report that claims ex-President Lee Myung-bak’s Four Rivers Project was fraught with irregularities and conducted without proper oversight, a number of civic groups have issued statements in response, denouncing the former leader and calling for his punishment.
Some civic groups also called for an investigation into all the high-level public officials who were involved in the project, while other groups asked that Lee be called to a public hearing.
A committee composed of 182 civic groups that is investigating the project said that the results of the audit show how Lee pushed ahead with the project despite environmental concerns and without following proper procedures.
The groups also said that public officials working at various key ministries at the central government were also implicated in the wrongdoings.
The committee is calling for a measure that would correct the mismanagement of large government projects following the recent audit.
“A fundamental review of each of the steps in processes involving government projects must be carried out,” said a spokesperson for the committee.
Meanwhile, the Korean Federation for Environmental Movements stated that the former president should be asked to stand at a public hearing, claiming that the Four Rivers Project “damaged the democratic ways of the administrative process and perfectly trifled the nation’s system.”
The organization also called for Lee to apologize, while asking that the reputation of those who were punished for opposing the project be restored.
The civic groups were in union as they stated that the Four Rivers Project had wasted valuable taxpayer money while having the worst possible effect on the ecosystem.
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)
