Four years ago, the Ministry of Industry announced “the establishment of a dedicated police investigation team”,
but in reality, it was not installed “because it was reported as a serious crime”,
but the damage to the solar power corruption revealed by the Board of Audit and Inspection
is the responsibility of the common people… About 3,000 consultations over 5 years by the Moon government
It has been confirmed that the ‘solar power investment fraud investigation team’ that the Moon Jae-in government declared to establish with the police has not actually been launched. While the government just talked and let go, public officials, local governments, and businesses colluded to commit corruption in the solar power generation business. Only the powerless common people suffered greatly from false and exaggerated advertisements and investment scams that abused the pouring subsidies.
According to related ministries on the 16th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced the establishment of an investigation team dedicated to solar investment fraud in July 2019, saying, “We will cooperate with the National Police Agency to intensively investigate the types of solar damage and major cases.” At that time, more and more people were being scammed after investing in the solar power business in Korea. As the controversy grew, the energy authorities took out a cooperation card with the police, saying they would prevent the spread of damage토토사이트.
A month earlier, in June 2019, the Ministry of Industry established a ‘solar power damage reporting center’ within the Korea Energy Agency for the purpose of responding to false, exaggerated, and misrepresented advertisements for the solar power business. As soon as the report center was established, nearly 100 solar damage reports were poured in.
The Ministry of Industry said it would specify the timing and size of the dedicated investigation team while looking at the cases reported to the center and the progress of the investigation. In addition, the investigation team will investigate allegations of collusion and corruption between local governments and operators, and if cases of fraud are found, they will be banned from participating in the project for the next 10 years.
However, after this announcement, the government did not launch a dedicated investigation team for solar investment fraud. A government official who knows the situation at the time explained, “I remember that the police did not even have a dedicated investigation team because there were surprisingly few suspicious cases of serious crimes among the reports received.”
However, many of the solar power corruption cases revealed through the recent investigation by the Board of Audit and Inspection overlap with the time when the government announced the establishment of a dedicated solar power investment fraud investigation team. For example, in the process of permitting a solar power plant in Anmyeon Island, Taean-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, a collusion between a private company and two public officials of the Ministry of Industry occurred between 2018 and 2019. After taking off their civil service clothes in 2019, the two public officials re-employed as the company’s CEO and partner company’s executive director,
In addition, it was in 2020 that Gunsan City, North Jeolla Province, gave preferential treatment as a preferred bidder for solar power project construction to a company where Gunsan Mayor Kang Im-joon’s high school alumni served as CEO. These are cases that might have been prevented if the Ministry of Industry and Trade had established a dedicated solar investment fraud investigation team with the police in 2019 as announced. In this regard, President Yoon Seok-yeol ordered on the 14th to “thoroughly investigate the entire solar power business decision-making line at the time.”
Throughout his tenure, the Moon government adhered to the nuclear phase-out policy and poured a huge budget into the spread of renewable energy. The budget for new and renewable energy support, which was less than 400 billion won in 2017 when the Moon administration was launched, more than tripled to 1.258 trillion won in 2022, the last year of his term.
While those who had information committed corruption in solar power by jumping on the bandwagon of huge subsidies, the common people suffered one after another. For example, Mr. A, who lives in the province, saw a banner ad with the phrase ‘free installation of solar power’ written on it. It was said that subsidies could be received separately from the central and local governments. Mr. A called the company and paid 9 million won for installation. However, this company was a company that had nothing to do with government projects, and government support itself had already ended.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency, the number of consultations on damage similar to that suffered by Mr. A reached 2996 from 2017 to 2022 (as of the end of August). Yoo Seung-hoon, professor of future energy convergence at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said, “The government needs to take this opportunity to establish a plan to block solar power corruption. You must not make the mistake of yours,” he said.
respectively.