[Exclusive] "Duplicate payment of adoption data computerization labor costs"···Police begin investigation into Child Rights Protection Agency

Overseas adoptees report dereliction of duty and breach of trust,
"Knew about duplicate payment of labor costs but failed to take action"

The police have begun an investigation into the case of the Child Rights Protection Agency, an organization under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, improperly paying labor costs to a specific company. The company in question is the one suspected of “blank paper scanning,” in which they scanned blank sheets of paper instead of adoption documents and received project costs while working on a Child Rights Protection Agency contract project (computerizing adoption records) for nine

consecutive years. According to the police on the 10th, the Jongno Police Station in Seoul received a case on the 2nd in which the Solidarity for Children’s Rights filed a complaint against the Director of the Child Rights Protection Agency, Jeong Ik-joong, and two executive-level employees on charges of dereliction of duty and breach of trust on behalf of adoptees from 11 countries on the 20th of last month. The allegation is that the Child Rights Protection Agency mismanaged the project by making duplicate payments to a specific company for labor costs in the process of computerizing adoption records, etc., and did not take any action to recover the duplicate payments despite being aware of the duplicate payments.

Jongro has been investigating the corruption in the 'Adoption Records Computerization Project (worth 2.03965 billion won)' that the company was in charge of for 9 years, including the suspicion of blank paper scanning, and has started a full-scale investigation into the 'improper payment of labor costs' suspicion by grouping the cases together. A Jongro official said, "We received the case because it has similarities in the overall context with the contents we are currently investigating," and "We are organizing the details of the accusation as we have begun the investigation."

According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Nam-hee, the company received a contract for the 'Adoption and Missing Person (Child Card) Record Computerization Project' from the Child Rights Protection Institute for three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, and submitted a list of people who did not participate in the project and received about 50 million won in labor costs. The list contained the names of employees who participated in another project, the 'Adoption Records Computerization Project', which was carried out during the same period.

However, it was also confirmed that the Child Rights Protection Agency, which was supposed to supervise and manage the progress of the project, was aware of this fact but did not take any action to recover it.

Cho Min-ho, head of the Child Rights Solidarity who filed the complaint, explained, "For many adoptees who are living in pain because they cannot find their biological families, the adoption records and child cards that the Child Rights Protection Center computerized are very precious." He added, "Not only the company that paid the duplicate labor costs, but also the Child Rights Protection Center that ran this project poorly is responsible, and I decided to file the complaint because I judged that an investigation was necessary."

 

The internal document of the Child Rights Protection Agency, “2020, 2021 Adoption/Missing (Children’s Card) Records Computerization Project Investigation Results,” states that five employees of service providers received duplicate payroll expenses in two projects. Provided by the office of Rep. Kim Nam-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea

Meanwhile, the Child Rights Protection Center belatedly filed a civil suit against the company in question after the state audit and the Ministry of Health and Welfare audit last year, claiming that the company had conducted the project poorly and seeking to recover 58 million won for the blank scans.

However, the company in question recently stated in a phone call with the Hankook Ilbo, "We submitted the company's data management guidelines, which included a statement that even the backs of documents (where there is no content) were scanned, as evidence to the court," and "The Child Rights Protection Center knew for years that the company worked based on the guidelines but did not raise any issues." They also added, "The Child Rights Protection Center employees in charge of the project signed 'no issues' on the inspection results submitted by the company after the project was completed, so we believe that it cannot be the subject of a civil suit in the first place."

 

The 'Data Management Guidelines ' created and used by the service provider that carried out the 'Adoption Record Computerization Project' of the Child Rights Protection Agency during the project's promotion process . The service provider claimed that the 'blank scan', etc. were all done at the request or approval of the Child Rights Protection Agency, citing the section that says 'scanning all target data without exception'. Provided by the service provider

 

Reporter Won Dara (dara@hankookilbo.com)