By Nam Hyun-woo
The National Pension Service (NPS) has invested nearly 2 trillion won in former President Lee Myung-bak's Four Major Rivers Restoration Project which are mired in corruption and shoddy work, a lawmaker said Thursday.
Rep. Kim Yong-ik of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said the country's pension operator invested 1.93 trillion won to buy bonds issued by 16 construction companies, which took part in the project, from 2009 to March this year.
"The NPS has aggressively invested in the companies from the beginning of the project in 2009, while it only spent 5 billion won in the same companies during the previous administration of President Roh Moo-hyun in 2007," Kim said, citing data submitted by NPS.
According to the data, the amount of investment in the project has increased steadily from 5 billion won in 2007 to 774 billion last year.
He said some of the contractors have junk-bond-level credit standing.
"NPS's investment in the construction companies since the beginning of the four-river project raises suspicion that the operator wasted pension subscribers' money in the controversial project," he said.
Kim also pointed out that the amount of investments in Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries among the 16 companies accounted for 64.8 percent of the total with 1.25 trillion won.
The NPS said the investment was executed by its 39 commissioned bond investors who have autonomy in deciding which company to invest. It said it cannot disclose which of these investors were involved in this investment.
According to an NPS official, NPS cannot order the investors to sell or buy a company's bond and the investors independently analyze profitability of each company and make investments.
"There is an NPS guideline that the asset managers should not invest in companies having credit-ratings lower than BBB+. But we cannot say ‘no' to their investment plan only because it involves construction companies participating in the four-river project," she added.
The National Pension Service (NPS) has invested nearly 2 trillion won in former President Lee Myung-bak's Four Major Rivers Restoration Project which are mired in corruption and shoddy work, a lawmaker said Thursday.
Rep. Kim Yong-ik of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) said the country's pension operator invested 1.93 trillion won to buy bonds issued by 16 construction companies, which took part in the project, from 2009 to March this year.
"The NPS has aggressively invested in the companies from the beginning of the project in 2009, while it only spent 5 billion won in the same companies during the previous administration of President Roh Moo-hyun in 2007," Kim said, citing data submitted by NPS.
According to the data, the amount of investment in the project has increased steadily from 5 billion won in 2007 to 774 billion last year.
He said some of the contractors have junk-bond-level credit standing.
"NPS's investment in the construction companies since the beginning of the four-river project raises suspicion that the operator wasted pension subscribers' money in the controversial project," he said.
Kim also pointed out that the amount of investments in Samsung C&T and Samsung Heavy Industries among the 16 companies accounted for 64.8 percent of the total with 1.25 trillion won.
The NPS said the investment was executed by its 39 commissioned bond investors who have autonomy in deciding which company to invest. It said it cannot disclose which of these investors were involved in this investment.
According to an NPS official, NPS cannot order the investors to sell or buy a company's bond and the investors independently analyze profitability of each company and make investments.
"There is an NPS guideline that the asset managers should not invest in companies having credit-ratings lower than BBB+. But we cannot say ‘no' to their investment plan only because it involves construction companies participating in the four-river project," she added.
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