The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will convene its contract review committee at 2 p.m. on the 20th to deliberate sanctions against LIG Defense & Aerospace, formerly LIG Nex1, in a case in which the company's vice president and an executive director were indicted on charges of giving money to a DAPA official.
"Regarding the LIG D&A case involving bribes paid to a DAPA official, we are holding a contract review committee on the 20th made up of 20 members, including civilian members," a DAPA official said. "The final level of sanctions will be decided late in the afternoon, and our basic position is that this must be punished strictly."
DAPA Commissioner Lee Yong-chul was asked at a parliamentary audit of the agency by the National Assembly's National Defense Committee on the 13th about the assessment that the case is the largest bribery case involving an agency employee since DAPA was established. "Judging by the amount of the bribes in the indictment, that would be the case," the commissioner said. "We intend to respond very strictly to this matter so that this kind of thing does not happen again."
All 27 sanctions imposed in bribery cases since DAPA's establishment have been restrictions on bidding eligibility. Because this deliberation is being conducted under the State Contracts Act, which allows a fine to be imposed in place of a bidding restriction, the precedent is expected to carry over in a case in which senior executives have been indicted.
The items on the agenda cover two of the six programs at issue — allegations of bribery and cost fraud related to contracted programs. Sanctions concerning the remaining five programs, which were arranged under agreements with the Defense Technology Promotion Research Institute, will be reviewed separately.
Enforcement rules under the State Contracts Act set the bidding restriction at two years for bribes of 200 million won or more. When multiple violations are sanctioned together, the longest applicable restriction among those violations is applied.
According to investigation results announced by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office on Aug. 20, a grade-5 DAPA official identified as A took part in evaluating proposals for six defense programs worth a combined 91.5 billion won from 2021 through the end of 2025. In an October 2021 evaluation of an "intelligent signal detection technology" project, the official gave LIG D&A the highest score in 16 of 20 categories and gave a competitor the lowest score in every category.
In the process, the official received a total of 460 million won in cash and other benefits, including 320 million won in cash, the right to recommend subcontracting service contracts worth 2.2 billion won, and 140 million won in commissions for selecting subcontractors. At the first hearing at the Suwon District Court on Sept. 29, the official and three other defendants admitted all of the charges.
