Researchers to Receive Fixed Domestic Travel Allowance

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Junho] The government will provide a fixed allowance for domestic travel expenses to reduce administrative burdens at research sites of government-funded research institutes.

The National Research Council of Science & Technology held an extraordinary board meeting on the 31st and announced that it has established fixed payment standards for domestic travel fares of research institutes under its jurisdiction and is promoting simplification of proof methods to alleviate administrative burdens related to travel expense documentation.

Since 2017, government-funded research institutes under the council have been reimbursing domestic travel expenses on an actual cost basis following recommendations from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission to improve budget waste factors in public institutions. However, demands for fixed payments have been continuously raised due to increased administrative burdens in travel expense settlements and the introduction of verification procedures to prevent fraudulent claims at the institutional level. The research institutes also pointed out that additional budgets and personnel are required to build and operate actual cost support systems, limiting the effectiveness of the original intent to prevent budget waste.

Accordingly, the council decided to provide fixed payments for domestic travel fares where administrative burdens are excessive among travel expenses. In addition, it comprehensively recognizes travel proof methods such as tickets, payment receipts at travel destinations, photos including date and location information, and meeting minutes to minimize administrative burdens at research sites.

In particular, fixed payment standards for domestic travel fares by mode of transportation have been established, and based on this, travel fares will be paid according to the destination, with plans to build an automatic calculation system in the future.

Yong Hong-taek, Director of the Research and Development Policy Office at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "It is most important to improve regulations that can be practically felt at government-funded research sites," adding, "Along with this improvement in travel expenses, we plan to continuously identify and improve on-site regulations that field researchers directly experience."

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