Government Detects 267 Cases of Research Fund Misuse and Duplicate Claims Violations

245 Cases·2.37 Billion KRW, Investigation Requests·National Treasury Recovery
Enhanced Monitoring Functions·Execution Details Inspection Strengthened
Expanded Scope of Taxation Information Provided by the National Tax Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] #㈜○○ included individuals who did not participate in research as researchers and improperly paid 4 million KRW in labor costs, and falsely claimed overtime work 303 times to fraudulently receive 8 million KRW. The relevant ministries demanded the recovery of the improperly received amount and requested a police investigation.

#㈜○○○○ registered administrative staff as participating researchers and improperly disbursed 54 million KRW in research allowances. Accordingly, the relevant ministries demanded the recovery of the improperly disbursed amount.

#㈜○○ conducted a research project worth 260 million KRW but failed to submit the first-year project expense usage report and did not bear the private sector contribution of 62 million KRW in the second year. The relevant ministries decided to restrict future research participation.

The Government Joint Corruption Prevention Monitoring Team of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, together with seven ministries including the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and ICT, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Rural Development Administration, announced on the 4th that they detected a total of 267 cases during an inspection of government subsidy execution in national research and development projects (May to November 2019).

These included 155 cases of misuse of research funds such as research equipment and material expenses, 23 cases of duplicate claims for research funds, and 89 cases of failure to recover payments after cancellation of tax invoices.

On-site inspections revealed improper disbursement cases such as payment of research funds to employees not participating in research, misappropriation after non-payment to researchers, purchase of equipment unrelated to project execution, and use of research funds with insufficient documentation.

Thematic inspections found cases where research funds were excessively claimed by attaching the same electronic tax invoice as evidence for projects from different ministries, and cases where research funds were excessively disbursed because funds were not recovered despite cancellation of electronic tax invoices due to contract termination or returns after purchasing goods.

The government is strictly pursuing measures including filing complaints and requesting investigations for serious or suspected intentional cases of embezzlement or misappropriation of research funds (6 cases), recovering improperly disbursed amounts to the national treasury (245 cases), and restricting participation (3 institutions, 6 individuals).

Furthermore, personnel actions such as disciplinary measures will be taken against those who violated related regulations or were involved in improper disbursement of research funds, depending on the degree of negligence.

The government plans to promote system improvements, including establishing a system that can effectively verify improper use of research funds both before and after disbursement, to ensure that research funds are used in accordance with their original research and development purposes.

First, the integrated research fund management system will be operated more efficiently to strengthen pre-monitoring functions for duplicate, excessive, and false disbursement of research and development funds.

Additionally, verification of expenditure details will be strengthened for research institutions conducting multi-ministry projects. The system will be improved to allow confirmation of related research fund expenditures supported by different ministries for the same researcher through linkage of research fund execution information among specialized agencies.

The scope of tax information provided by the National Tax Service will be expanded to enhance the effectiveness of verifying improper use. Not only the 'modification status' of electronic tax invoices but also information on reasons for modifications such as amount changes will be received to regularly check for false disbursements. Accounting firms will be actively utilized for continuous monitoring of research funds.

A government official stated, "We will closely monitor the implementation status to ensure that these measures and system improvements are completed within this year, and continue to thoroughly manage and supervise major national financial projects to prevent corruption in advance and ensure that the national budget is executed more efficiently."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.