Public Procurement Service discards drones used for national property surveys after long-term neglect

2024.10.04. The Fair Economy — It was revealed that the Public Procurement Service purchased five drones for administrative property survey purposes at a cost of 225 million won and left them unused for a long period before disposing of them.

Ahn Do-geol, a Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker on the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee, announced on the 4th that analysis of data submitted by the Public Procurement Service confirmed this fact.

The Public Procurement Service bought five drones in 2016 and 2017 for a total of 225.17 million won. The headquarters received a fixed‑wing drone costing 67.1 million won, while four regional procurement offices in Daegu, Gwangju, Gangwon and Chungbuk each received a rotary‑wing drone costing 39.5 million won.

Each drone was purchased for cases where, during state‑owned property surveys, access is difficult—such as in forested areas—and precise aerial photography is required.

The headquarters did not use its drone even once for 16 months after July 2022 and discarded it in November last year. In the Gangwon regional office, the drone was left idle for a year after November 2022. The Daegu office left it idle for 11 months, and the Gwangju office for 10 months before discarding it in November last year. The Daegu and Gangwon office drones were operated 39 times each between November and December 2022, at about 1 million won per flight. Additionally, the Gwangju office operated its drone 71 times up to January last year, the Chungbuk office 132 times up to April this year, and the headquarters drone 188 times up to July 2022.

All the drones were eventually discarded after poor operational performance. The headquarters and the Daegu, Gwangju and Gangwon offices left their drones idle for between 10 months and 1 year and 4 months before scrapping them last November. The Chungbuk office also stored its drone for two months after its final flight in April this year before scrapping it in June. Even last year, when four of the drones were not operated, the service paid an insurance premium of 2.67 million won.

The Public Procurement Service said, "We considered repairing the drones after they broke down, but decided not to use them on the grounds that their useful life, or 'depreciable period,' of four years had passed and the equipment was aging."

In response, Ahn Do-geol said, "The fact that drones prepared for national property management have been left unused for several years and have shown low utilization means that taxpayers' money has been wasted," and added, "Since drones are highly effective for detecting unauthorized occupation of national property, the agency should consider using rented drones when necessary to improve survey efficiency in the future."