The government asked the prosecution Monday to investigate bidding committee officials for forgery in Gwangju’s push to host the 2019 World Aquatics Championships.

It also reaffirmed its position that it would not provide financial support for the championships.

The government will strengthen the examination of prospective hosts of international sports events especially in terms of finance.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism accused Gwangju Mayor Kang Un-tae of forging the signatures of ex-Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik and former Culture Minister Choe Kwang-shik in the city’s bid. Hours later on the same day, Gwangju was selected to host the world championships.

According to ministry officials, the ministry issued letters of government guarantee in late February, but the bidding committee filed manipulated letters of government guarantee to the international swimming federation (FINA) on April 2.

The ministry found the manipulation on April 26 and demanded shortly afterward that the committee replace the manipulated letters with the original letters when it submitted its final bid to the FINA. The committee filed the original documents, not the manipulated ones, in its final submission.

“The ministry gave the bidding committee an official notice that it would be difficult to provide financial support and that it would seek punishment for forgery in the bidding process,” Roh Tae-kang, director-general of sports bureau of the ministry, said at a press briefing at the ministry on Monday.

“The committee did not merely forge signatures, but rewrote the letters as well,” he added.

He said that an official of the bidding committee told ministry investigators that the letters were manipulated on the advice of a consulting firm that doing so would raise the chance of success.

“Immediately after finding the document manipulation, the ministry asked the committee to retract its bid but let it go ahead, considering Gwangju citizens and the local swimming community,” he said.

“The ministry decided to follow up on the matter after July 19 at the request of Gwangju City Hall.”

Under the financial plan at the time of the government approval of Gwangju’s bid plan, the ministry would provide 5.5 billion won out of a total of 63.5 billion won for the championships.

The ministry said that it would revise laws related to provincial governments’ bids for international sporting events.

“We will review future bidding plans more strictly to prevent provincial governments from imposing the entire financial burden upon the central government.”

By Chun Sung-woo (swchun@heraldcorp.com)