[경제]The Ministry of Industry secretly deletes ‘444 documents’ on Sunday night to avoid the auditor

[앵커]

It was revealed that the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, which was involved in the decision to close Wolseong Unit 1 ahead of time, secretly erased the data on Sunday night to avoid the audit agency’s request to send Additional data.

More than 400 documents have been deleted, of which 120 have not been recovered.

This is reporter Lee Ji-eun.

[기자]

In November last year, the head of the Ministry of Industry reported that the audit was ongoing and ordered his subordinate to delete the data related to Wolsong Unit 1.

And on Sunday night, the day before the auditor’s interview, Mr. A left the office and by dawn had erased more than 400 documents, interfering with the audit.

[최재형 / 감사원장 (지난 15일) : 감사 과정에서 밝혀낸 사실에 의하면 국회 감사 요구 이후에 산업부 공무원들이 관계 자료를 거의 모두 삭제했습니다. 그리고 그것을 복구하는 데도 시간이 걸렸고 또 진술받는 과정에서도 상당히 어려움이 있었습니다.]

The Ministry of Industry drew a line that was left to its own discretion even though it was regrettable that the employee erased the data.

Including the data deletion, the audit report contained the fact that former Industry Minister Baek Woon-gyu and the employees participated in the early closure of Wolsong Unit 1.

First of all, it was confirmed that in 2018, before the external agencies’ economic viability assessment came out, Baek decided to close the KHNP Board of Directors early and immediately close Wolseong Unit 1.

As a result, Industry Ministry employees prevented KHNP from considering options other than the immediate closure of the first Wolsong nuclear power plant.

In addition, it was revealed that the KHNP board of directors conducted an economic evaluation with the advantage of taking an immediate decision to suspend operations.

The auditor also noted that Baek knew this or that he had left him alone even though he knew it well enough.

However, the Ministry of Industry argued that it was difficult to agree with the opinion that it was improperly involved and refuted that the immediate suspension of the operation was valid political judgment when considering the purpose of state affairs.

He added that there was no confirmed problem with the decision to close early, emphasizing that he would continue to move forward with the early closure of Wolsong Unit 1 and the power conversion policy.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power said it will develop guidelines so that the economic viability of nuclear power plants can be reasonably assessed, and said it will accept the results in principle after the announcement by the Audit and Inspection Board.

YTN Lee Ji-eun[[email protected]]is.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]