[2026 National Assembly Audit] Oh Sehoon: "Han River Bus Whistleblower Was an Employee Who Left Amid Internal Conflict"

On the alleged whistleblower: "Left due to internal conflict"
"Raising questions is fine, but this is an excessive political offensive"

Seoul Mayor Oh Sehoon said that the person claiming to be a public-interest whistleblower in connection with the Han River Bus kickback allegations was an employee who had worked in the Audit Office and left because of internal conflict. Oh criticized the allegations as “an excessive challenge made without any decisive clues.”

On October 19, during the Seoul Metropolitan Government audit by the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, Oh told Eom Taeyoung, a lawmaker from the People Power Party, “This case began when an employee who had worked in our Audit Office took these materials outside and made them public, just before the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee’s audit.”

Yonhap News Agency

Oh also challenged the employee’s claim to be a public-interest whistleblower. “When we looked into the circumstances internally, we found that it was related to the employee’s personnel issue,” he said, adding, “There was also an underlying conflict between employees during the transfer from the Audit Office to another department, though it is difficult to disclose the details.”

In response to the repeated allegations, Oh argued that they amounted to a “political offensive.” “It remains to be seen whether the criminal allegations will be proven, but would it be socially desirable to establish an order in which people accused of wrongdoing are suspended from their positions, whether in the public or private sector?” he said. “It is fine to raise questions, but this can only be seen as an excessive political offensive.”

During questioning in the afternoon, officials also said that the decision to refer the Han River Bus kickback allegations to the Board of Audit and Inspection for a public-interest audit, rather than requesting a criminal investigation, had been made by political appointees, not by Oh. Asked by Democratic Party lawmaker Mo Gyeongjong about documents prepared and reports made after a tip concerning the kickback allegations was received in September 2025, the Seoul Metropolitan Government official who headed the Investigations Division at the time said, “At the time, we did not prepare a request for a criminal investigation or a public-interest audit request in writing,” adding, “The decision to request a public-interest audit was made after the chief of the mayor’s secretariat instructed us to do so.”

Oh’s chief of staff at the time also said, “We held an internal meeting through the political affairs team and conveyed the results to me.” The chief added, “I reported the matter to Mayor Oh and told him that, since this was the decision, we would notify the Audit Committee. Mayor Oh told us to proceed.”

Responding to Democratic Party lawmakers’ criticism that the Seoul Metropolitan Government had sought a public-interest audit with an inadequate request that omitted specific details in order to prompt its rejection, the city said, “The materials the Seoul Metropolitan Government Audit Committee had obtained at the time consisted of a whistleblower’s statements about suspicions of financial dealings and circumstantial evidence, such as call recordings. The payments had not been objectively verified.” It added, “We did not include unverified allegations in the audit request, and decided to review necessary measures, including requesting a criminal investigation, after further verifying the facts.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.