Top executives of Samsung and Hyundai’s construction arms are expected to face some tough questions regarding recent fines when they take the stand at the parliamentary audit by the nation’s antitrust watchdog next week.

The National Policy Committee on Monday asked Samsung C&T CEO Choi Chi-hun and Hyundai E&C’s CEO Jung Soo-hyun to appear before lawmakers as witnesses.

According to data from the Fair Trade Commission, South Korea’s construction companies faced combined fines of 960 billion won ($902 million) over the last five years for colluding to fix bidding prices on construction projects.

“The government should implement firm policies and stern punishment to realize fair competition in the construction industry,” said Rep. Kim Gi-juhn of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who requested the data for the upcoming audit.

Among the leading builders, Hyundai E&C was slapped with the largest fine, 121.6 billion won, followed by Daelim Industries and Samsung C&T, which were ordered to pay some 121 billion won in penalties.

Kim added that the data showed that the amount of fines slapped on the top seven builders accounted for 65 percent of the total amount of penalties faced by all the builders in the country from 2010-2014.

Kim also criticized the FTC for not banning the builders from participating in the bidding for state-initiated projects.

By law, the antitrust watchdog can request bidding restrictions on construction firms caught engaging in collusion but it has not asked for such a ban in the past five years, the lawmaker said.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)