Gyeonggi Province Establishes Defective Construction Prevention Measures Including Nation's First Anonymous Reporting System

[Suwon Ilbo=Park Noh-hun, Reporter] Gyeonggi Province is taking the lead nationwide by introducing an 'anonymous reporting system for defective construction' and stepping up efforts to activate public interest reports on defective construction in public works projects throughout the province.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 20th that it will establish and implement the 'Gyeonggi Province Defective Construction Report Activation Plan' this year, which is centered on the above contents.

Previously, the province enacted the 'Ordinance on Prevention of Defective Construction in Gyeonggi Province' in May 2019, including methods for reporting defective construction, in order to ensure proper execution of construction projects and secure quality and safety of construction works.

Nevertheless, there have been continuous calls for improvement due to reporters' burden from 'real-name' reporting and inconvenience of limited reporting methods, which were restricted to postal or facsimile (fax) reporting.

Accordingly, the province has prepared a public interest reporting activation plan that includes thorough guarantee of anonymity and diversification of reporting methods, and plans to prevent defective construction by raising awareness among relevant parties such as public officials in charge, site representatives, and construction management technicians to ensure proper construction.

Looking at the content of the measures, first, an 'anonymous reporting system' will be introduced to allow anyone to report defective construction anonymously without worry of real-name exposure when witnessing and aware of defective construction.

However, to minimize unnecessary waste of administrative resources from negative actions such as excessive reporting or malicious or retaliatory reports, a safeguard has been implemented requiring reports to be submitted with clear reporting materials such as project name, location, and site photographs.

Additionally, to enable more defective construction cases to be captured by the reporting network, the reporting deadline has been extended from the existing 'within 1 year after project completion' to 'defect warranty liability period by project type (minimum 1–maximum 10 years)' in accordance with the 'Construction Industry Basic Law'.

Furthermore, considering the evolving communications environment and residents' convenience, the province has decided to diversify reporting methods.

Previously, reporting was only possible by phone or fax, but the plan is to now also allow reporting through the internet (Defective Construction Reporting Center).

Going forward, a reporting mobile application will also be developed to further activate reporting.

In pursuit of implementing this plan, the province has continuously consulted with the Gyeonggi Provincial Council and supplemented the contents, and based on this, amended the 'Ordinance on Prevention of Defective Construction in Gyeonggi Province' on the 29th, with full implementation set to begin from May 20th.

Kim Gyo-heung, head of the Construction Safety Technology Division of Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We have established this defective construction reporting system activation program to create a fair and proper construction environment from the perspective of residents," and added, "Going forward, we will expand the reporting targets to include not only province-commissioned projects but also city and county-commissioned projects to actively ensure that no defective construction occurs in the province."

Meanwhile, the province pays reward money ranging from a minimum of 1 million won to a maximum of 5 million won to reporters for defective construction reports after review by the Defective Construction Prevention Committee, if the case is determined to be defective construction.