Endless corruption with renewable energy

The abnormalities around renewable energy projects under the former government are dumbfounding. The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) revealed its findings on state-backed renewable energy projects and requested the prosecution investigate 38 figures suspected of engaging in irregular activities for personal gains. Although the cases need further investigations from the top law enforcement agency, the government watchdog has discovered deep-rooted corruption among bureaucrats and employees of public corporations under government ministries.

The charges included a mid-level government official who unilaterally changed the purpose of a land site for a solar power business at the request of his colleague. His junior also fabricated related documents before attending a parliamentary hearing to explain the project. After they were removed from public office, the two officials became the CEO and vice president of the company, which obtained the rights to build a solar power farm in the country. The junior-rank official confessed that he had to follow an order from his boss. The head of a municipal government also came under the BAI’s radar. He offered favoritism to a solar panel company to become a preferred bidder though it lacked eligibility. The BAI has concluded the decision caused the local government more than 11 billion won ($8.6 million) in losses.

A professor at a public university in North Jeolla was the schemer of the worst kind. He was the de facto owner of a company his brother represented and won a license to run a wind power business in the Saemangeum area in North Jeolla. After winning the permit, he sold the company to a foreign company at $50 million, 600 times bigger than the company’s capital, without even starting the construction.

Renewable energy projects that had been aggressively pushed for renewable energy promotion under the Moon Jae-in administration have raised controversies many times. Solar panel projects mostly went to former student activists who formed the mainstream of the ruling party during the Moon administration. According to the findings by the Prime Minister’s Office in September, an investigation into 12 power infrastructure projects costing 12 trillion won over the past five years for 226 local governments, a whopping 2,267 cases had been badly executed to cause 261.6 billion won in tax waste. Despite the heavy spending, Chinese panels reaped the gains to dominate the panel market in Korea to devastate the local industry.

The irregularities involving renewable energy projects should be a lesson to public policymaking. Policies to merely meet presidential campaign promises without economic reasoning can only lead to corruption among stakeholders and loss of their credibility.