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Five water meter inspectors belonging to Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do were found to have caused a scandal by arbitrarily listing the water usage of local residents, and this time, it was discovered that they had extorted some of the money of the elderly who requested payment of water bills.
On the 19th, the water circulation office of the Damyang-gun Office announced that it will file a complaint with the police on charges of breach of trust against five water meter inspectors who have recently been dismissed, suspended, or reduced in wages due to 'negligence'.
In January of last year, in the process of replacing the existing analog water meter with a digital one, the facts of misconduct such as negligence were revealed.
Damyang-gun, which was conducting a full inspection at the time, confirmed that there was a difference between the amount of water meter reading and the actual usage, and found that the meter readers had entered the usage arbitrarily without checking the meter properly.
Because of this, 1,954 households in Damyang-gun were hit by a 'water bill bomb' last month.
Damyang-gun charged a total of 340 million won in water bills to the households, which is six times higher than usual.
It is estimated that the claims per household ranged from tens of thousands of won to as high as 10 million won.
In particular, it was confirmed that Mr. A, who was dismissed from among the five meter reading officers who caused the problem, intercepted 8 million won (31 cases) of water bills, which he had been asked to pay for years, and was charged with embezzlement.
It is known that most of the victims are village elders who do not know how to use direct debit.
Person A is accused of receiving 5,000 to 10,000 won per month for several years, saying, 'I will pay the water bill for them.'
One restaurant even stole about 1.2 million won.
In the first half of this year, the Damyang-gun Water Circulation Office, which was engaged in the collection of delinquent bills against long-term delinquents, heard a complaint from an elderly man, "What do you mean when you pay the bill in cash?"
The Damyang-gun Water Circulation Office has instructed Mr. A to compensate the entire amount of extortion that has been identified so far.
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▲ Apology from the mayor of Damyang-gun
Then, Damyang-gun sent an apology to the residents, saying, "It was confirmed that some water tax was omitted due to the error of some meter inspectors."
Damyang-gun is currently receiving complaints from residents, and the final payment amount, including reductions and exemptions, will be finalized in early August and notified to each household
(Photo = Yonhap News)