Minister Suh Seoung-hwan is seen telling the reps of housing and construction 

associations to put safety first at all of their construction project sites during 

a May 26 meeting. Deputy Minister Sohn Tae-rak,1st L, of the Housing and 

Land Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also is 

seen at the meeting. (Photos:CAK)

Chairman Choi Sam-kyu of the Construction Association of Korea (CAK), at a session of residential housing and construction associations presided over by Minister Suh Seoung-hwan of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, said that excessive reductions in construction costs and unfair practices by public organizations should be eradicated so that the people will be able to enjoy facilities with superb qualities. The government also should be careful in taking care of unfair practices in public biddings through conducting investigations in advance.

The chairman said the public’s concerns for the safety of public infrastructure, highways, subways, and others directly related to their lives have been rising. He said he had a chance to talk to President Park about safety problems in public infrastructures on May 26.

Choi said the right amount of money should be paid to builders who build structures as stipulated in the contracts. 

Minister Suh urged that construction firms be reborn as companies that put safety first in all of their projects.

The chairman said investigations should not only be conducted on construction firms, but also on project owners in order to find out the real cause of unfair bidding processes and if causes are found to be related to the special nature of the business areas in which those bidders are involved, the investigators should take that into consideration before inflicting any administrative punishments.

In the meantime, the CAK has gone all out to provide support to its member firms’ measures to prevent safety accidents and management problems.

In April, the CAK set up a center to take care of problems for its member firms when the association reorganized its setup to expand its services to its member firms with the focus on measures to prevent safety accidents at various jobsites.

The association said on May 23 that it set up a special team in support of construction firms that are taking measures to prevent accidents at construction sites, especially at those of SME construction firms, whose accident prevention measures are considered not adequate.

The CAK has also been extending its help to solve problems between project owners and builders over the terms of construction, which have been rising lately. The CAK will try to provide its support to the construction firms in trouble over the terms of the construction project through the Team For Support of Construction Conflicts.

The association will provide its support to solve conflicts arising out of the terms of project order contracts for the construction firms as allowed under Article 78 of the Construction Law, which allows construction firms to ask for advice when they apply for construction conflict mitigation.

In addition, the CAK is ready to give support to SME construction firms for free in such areas as consultations to take care of various conflicts arising out of project contracts including legal, accounting, taxes, and labor problems so that they would be able to normalize their management by getting various problems out of the way to make their management sound and healthy.

CAK officials said the Construction Safety Accident Support Team of the association is ready to give support to member construction firms in such areas as safety, organization, and construction with professionals in those areas. The CAK has also secured professionals in consultation services and public relations to give consultations to member firms in such areas as legal and labor.

The professionals who will provide support to member firms consist of those who served with construction firms for long periods of time and are qualified to give advice on the prevention of safety accidents at jobsites and how to handle accidents when they occur.