Badminton association alleged for unfair deals and non-payment of bonus

It was revealed that the Badminton Korea Association removed an internal clause to provide 20 percent of donations to players without their knowledge. On the other hand, association leadership turned out to go against internal codes and get bonus pay for attracting sponsors. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism released an interim inspection report on how the association has taken advantage of rules in its interest by stealing rewards from hard-working athletes that would otherwise have been given to them.

The association purchased game supplies in government-funded projects on no-bid contracts while receiving rackets and shuttlecocks worth 150 million won, a third of which were sent preferentially to the BKA president’s hometown, behind closed doors, according to the ministry’s interim report. The ministry alleged his embezzlement and breach of trust while defining no-bid contracts with sponsors as a violation of the Subsidy Management Act. What’s more, the association infringed on comprehensive management guidelines on state subsidies and transacted with an accounting firm run by an association auditor, and granted a bonus pay of 68 million won to the vice president and executive director in return for their contribution to sponsorships. However, the articles of association prohibit management from receiving such perks.

While self-serving association leaders exploited the organization, got in athletes’ way of earning sponsorships and forced designated sponsors’ rackets and shoes on them, they did not give them a sponsorship bonus properly, said the ministry. Athletes argued that the association arbitrarily deleted a clause to distribute sponsorship funds to the national squad and revised a rule to mandate an international competition bonus to be granted via the association, adding that they did not get paid properly afterwards.

The ministry and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) are partly to blame for the lack of visibility on a range of irregularities and unfair contracts that prevail across the association, which receives over 7.1 billion won in government funds a year. People Power Party lawmaker South Korean Jin Jong-oh revealed that more than 70 cases of irregularities were reported to a sports ethics and anti-corruption center in place. For example, the Korea Shooting Federation was alleged to have paid bonus money to employees but did not give the Paris Olympics squad 300 million in prize money. It was said that the non-payment of prize money occurred as the federation’s president resigned, not keeping his inauguration pledge to donate money to the organization. It is time to run a thorough check on sports organizations under the KSOC to detect irregularities and illegal practices so that they can serve their original purpose of enhancing public physical fitness and nurturing talented athletes.