Korea’s Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) has dismissed HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ complaint against the results of a bid to build the next frigate for the Korean Navy.
According to industry sources, the ACRC recently sent a resolution to dismiss HD HHI’s complaint about the results. This came about five months after HD HHI filed the complaint in September 2023.
Previously, HD HHI lost to Hanwha Ocean by a narrow margin in a tender for the construction of Ulsan-class Batch III 5-6 warships conducted by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) in 2023. This was due to a security penalty of 1.8 points given to HD HHI in the tender’s weapons system proposal evaluation.
In November 2023, Nine HD HHI employees were indicted and convicted for stealing military secrets at least eight times between 2012 and 2015. In response, DAPA decided to impose the penalty on HD HHI until 2025.
HD HHI appealed to DAPA about the penalty, claiming that it was based on unclear security criteria, but the appeal was rejected. The company then filed a court injunction and a petition which were also rejected.