LEE ATTENDS PARLIAMENTARY INSPECTION

[Anchor Lead]

The key question of the Seongnam development scandal is why the project was designed to direct gains to a private company. Gyeonggi-do Governor and then-Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, who attended yesterday’s parliamentary inspection of government affairs, was grilled on whether he knew about it while serving as Seongnam mayor. Lee answered that he wasn’t briefed about the matter back then.

[Pkg]

People Power Party lawmakers focused their questions on the restitution of excess gains.

[Soundbite] Rep. Kim Eun-hye(People Power Party) : "The administrator at the time suggested to the director to add that clause since the economic situation may be uncertain, but he later saw that the clause was omitted from the contest guide. Were you aware of this back then?"

[Soundbite] Lee Jae-myung(DP Presidential Candidate) : "A staff member proposed it during the agreement process after the public contest was over. The fact is that the executives did not take it up at the time."

Gyeonggi-do Governor Lee Jae-myung emphasized that although some had suggested adding the clause, the clause in question was simply not chosen, not deleted after it was added. The opposition party argued that it was, in fact, dereliction of duty because this excess earning restitution clause was not included.

[Soundbite] Rep. Kim Eun-hye(People Power Party) : "By blocking the public entities from retrieving excess earnings,　you ended up giving KRW 404 bn and nearly KRW 1 tn to Hwacheondaeyu. That is dereliction of duty."

However, Lee claimed it was an internal decision made by the Seongnam Development Corporation and it wasn’t considered a problem back then.

[Soundbite] Rep. Kang Jun-hyun(Democratic Party) : "Don’t you have to give up locked-in gains　if you want to include the excess gain restitution clause?"

[Soundbite] Lee Jae-myung(DP Presidential Candidate)："Of course. Isn’t it logical to share the loss just as you would share the gains?"

The leading opposition party claimed that Lee has given different answers every time about the excess gain restitution clause and decided to examine whether he has committed perjury. After the session was over, Lee said that he needs time to think about when he would resign from his governor position, explaining that a public post is not something to be thrown away easily.