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[Exclusive] “Duplicate Payments for Digitization Labor Costs”… Police Launch Investigation into Child Rights Agency (NCRC)
Published: July 10, 2025, 4:21 PM | Updated: July 10, 2025, 5:03 PM
By Reporter Dara Won

Summary:

South Korean police have launched an investigation into the Child Rights Agency (NCRC) (under the Ministry of Health and Welfare) over allegations of mismanagement and duplicate payments related to an adoption record digitization project. Overseas adoptees have filed a complaint, claiming dereliction of duty and breach of trust.

The police have begun investigating the Child Rights Agency (NCRC), a body under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, over allegations it improperly paid labor costs to a specific contractor. This contractor, involved in a multi-year project to digitize adoption records, is accused of being paid even when scanning blank pages instead of actual documents—raising suspicions of what has become known as the “blank page scan” scandal.

According to police on July 10, the Jongno Police Station recently took over a case originally filed with Namdaemun Police Station on June 20. The Child Rights Solidarity, representing adoptees from 11 countries, had filed a formal complaint against the director of the agency, Jeong Ik-joong, and two senior officials for dereliction of duty and breach of trust.

The complaint alleges that during the digitization of adoption records, the agency not only allowed duplicate labor payments to a particular contractor but also failed to take corrective action despite being aware of the issue.

Jongno Police had already been investigating the contractor's role in a ₩2.04 billion (approx. $1.5 million USD) digitization project, including the “blank page scan” suspicions. With the new case joined, they are now officially expanding the investigation into fraudulent labor cost payments. A police official stated, “We took over the case due to its contextual similarities with our existing investigation. We are currently reviewing the full contents of the complaint.”

According to both the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Nam-hee, the contractor received nearly ₩50 million (approx. $36,000 USD) in labor costs from 2019 to 2021 by submitting names of individuals who didn’t actually participate in one of the agency’s digitization projects. These names were instead from another simultaneous project.

Despite having oversight responsibilities, the Child Rights Agency (NCRC) allegedly knew about this but failed to take action or recover the funds.

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Cho Min-ho, head of the Child Rights Solidarity and the person who filed the complaint, stated:

“To adoptees who live in pain, unable to find their biological families, the digitized adoption records and child cards are invaluable. Both the contractor and the agency that poorly managed the project must be held accountable. That’s why we filed this report.”

Internal documents from the agency titled "2020–2021 Adoption/Missing Child Record Digitization Project Investigation Results" confirm that five contractor employees received duplicate labor payments across two separate projects. (Provided by Rep. Kim Nam-hee’s office.)

Civil Lawsuit and Contractor’s Response:

Following audits by the National Assembly and the Ministry of Health and Welfare last year, the agency belatedly filed a civil lawsuit to recover ₩58 million (approx. $42,000 USD) related to the blank scans.

However, the contractor told the Korea Daily that they submitted a data management manual to the court as evidence. It allegedly states that even the backs of blank documents should be scanned—implying the agency was always aware of this practice and never raised any objections.

They added that the agency’s staff signed off on final inspection reports stating "no issues," and therefore, the civil lawsuit has no legal basis.

A copy of the contractor’s internal “data management manual”, created during the digitization project, includes a clause requiring “complete scanning of all target documents.” The contractor argues that this clause legitimized the blank scans and claims they were either requested or knowingly accepted by the agency.

Reporter: Dara Won (dara@hankookilbo.com)”