Suwon City Holds Meeting on Construction Project System Improvements

Suwon City (Mayor Yom Tae-young) held a meeting on the 25th to improve the construction project system.

The meeting was in response to concerns that excessive regulations result in lower quality work and heightened safety risks.

The meeting, attended by heads of construction-related departments, included comprehensive discussions on various issues including the realization of standard unit prices incurred during public building construction, low bid submission rates, mandatory direct construction ratios, separate ordering of government-supplied materials, reflection of price increases, and other construction project regulations.

Standard unit prices (일위대가) refer to remuneration or usage fees related to construction work.

First, the issue of realizing standard unit prices below cost estimates and low bid submission rates was raised. Participants noted that these issues create a vicious cycle in which construction quality deteriorates and contractors become sloppy.

Problems such as wage arrears and material payment defaults have also occurred during construction work on projects awarded by Suwon City.

To address these issues, the city plans to propose to central government ministries the realization of standard unit prices for atypical buildings in reinforced concrete construction and adjustments to bid submission rate thresholds.

Subsequently, concerns were raised that as the ratio of subcontracting work by prime contractors (rather than direct construction) increases, quality declines and safety accident risks rise.

Accordingly, the city plans to request legislation amending the Construction Industry Basic Act to apply mandatory direct construction ratios to projects over 5 billion won, not just projects under 5 billion won as currently stipulated.

Additionally, concerns were raised that issues regarding separate ordering of government-supplied materials and regulations on contract price adjustments for price fluctuations are largely disconnected from reality.

Furthermore, the city also plans to seek ways to streamline uniform regulations such as contract review and value engineering (VE) assessments internally.