There is so much money circulating in the telecommunications sector around the world that some call telecommunications "the modern-day license to mine gold." Therefore, it was not a huge surprise to read today's reports that prosecutors have indicted KT officials for receiving kickbacks. As reported in The Korea Times, a district prosecution office in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, apprehended the staffers and dozens of subcontractors on suspicions of taking and providing bribes, indicting seven with physical detention and 47 without restriction.
In one case, a senior KT official allegedly received a bribe of 350 million won ($275,000) from a subcontractor between December 2004 and July 2006 in return for ignoring shoddy construction work and providing other ``favors.'' The KT officials received bribes regularly in return for awarding optical cable network and other construction orders to the subcontractors. They were given from 3 to 5 percent of the contract value, the prosecutors' office said.