Posted on July 5, 2018
Former President Lee Myung-bak’s controversial project to refurbish the country’s four major rivers was shoddily planned, with Lee making specific design orders and government ministries blindly obeying them, the state audit agency said Wednesday.
The Lee administration spent 22 trillion won (US$20 billion) from 2008-2012 on the Four Rivers Project with the goal of preserving water, controlling floods and promoting tourism. But the project has been under constant criticism that large weirs built across the rivers worsened water quality and spread harmful green tides.
The project was also denounced as a possible prelude to a bigger project to build a “grand canal” through the country, which the construction CEO-turned-president promised during his election campaign but gave up on amid strong public opposition.
On Wednesday, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of its latest audit of the project conducted over the past year. It was the fourth time the agency has looked into the project, a record that shows how contentious and controversial the project has been.
According to the audit results, the project began when Lee suggested it to his land minister in June 2008, two months after he announced he would give up on the grand canal project.
Later that year, the ministry outlined its plan to Lee, saying it would prevent floods by reinforcing dikes along the rivers and dredging. But Lee ordered the construction weirs and a deeper dredging of the rivers, according to the audit results.
In the following months up until the project’s master plan was finalized in June 2009, Lee continued to issue specific design-wise orders, such as how deep the rivers should be and how much water the rivers should be able to hold, according to the results.
In particular, when the ministry reported to Lee that the minimum depth of the Nakdong River running southeast in the country would be set at 4 meters and the river would be able to hold 490 million tons of water, Lee ordered the river’s minimum depth should be at least 6 meters.
Presidential officials also said the river should be able to hold at least 800 million tons of water.
The ministry did not question these orders and just complied with them, the audit agency said.
In addition, the environment ministry reported to the then presidential office that the construction of weirs across the rivers could lead to water pollution, such as green tides, but the office ordered the ministry to refrain from talking about green tides, and the ministry complied, the audit agency said.
Agency officials said they tried to ask Lee why he made such orders but were unable to do so because Lee refused such interviews both face-to-face and in writing. By law, the president is not subject to the agency’s audit, officials said.
The agency said a series of irregularities have been found, but they were not punishable as their statutes of limitations have already expired.
Source: Yonhapnews
