On the 19th, Representative Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's 'Special Committee on Fact-Finding for Infringements of People's Suffrage, Such as the Ballot Shortage During the 9th Nationwide Simultaneous Local Elections, and Electoral Management Reform,' speaks at the National Assembly Communication Hall, revealing that 82.1% of the National Election Commission's contracts over the past five years were private contracts. [Photo = Yonhap News]

Amid growing criticism over the National Election Commission (NEC)'s excessive use of private contracts, new allegations have emerged that the commission repeatedly entered into "split private contracts" with specific companies.

Representative Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party, who serves on the 'Special Committee on Fact-Finding for Infringements of People's Suffrage, Such as the Ballot Shortage During the 6.3 Local Elections, and Electoral Management Reform,' stated that this was identified through an analysis of "government agency contract data" obtained from the Public Procurement Service.

Representative Joo had previously criticized the NEC, noting that an exhaustive analysis of 2,665 contracts over the past five years showed that 82.1% were private contracts, a figure that reached 87.7% last year alone.

According to Representative Joo on this day, the National Election Commission recently entered into 30 private contracts totaling 940.67 million won with six different companies. These contracts, related to the same elections, involved printing, manuals, office equipment rentals, ballot box manufacturing, and the transport of overseas election materials, all of which were split into multiple smaller private contracts with the same vendors.

For instance, Company A signed five separate private contracts for printing and manual production related to the 21st Presidential Election within a span of just six days, from April 10 to April 15 of last year. The total value of these contracts amounted to 186.58 million won.

This company also secured private contracts for local election voting and counting management manuals again this year.

Additionally, Company B split a contract for renting office equipment for the General Election Situation Room into two parts on the same day, while Company C signed separate private contracts on the same day for the production of large ballot boxes, ballot box locks, and lids for postal ballot boxes.

Company D split and signed private contracts on the same day for the transport of goods related to the 21st Presidential Election's overseas voting, and Company E separated contracts for the production of local election voting and counting management manuals. Company F also split vehicle rental contracts on the same day based on specific purposes.

Representative Joo pointed out that these instances raise suspicions that the contracts were intentionally split to meet the requirements for private contracting, even though they could have been consolidated given the purpose and nature of the work.

Representative Joo emphasized that these newly identified contracts are directly linked to core election management procedures, and that split private contracts with specific companies could lead to issues regarding the overall credibility of election management. He added, "Through the parliamentary investigation, we will thoroughly examine the allegations of collusion between former and current NEC employees and the companies receiving these private contracts."