[2020 National Audit] 2,534 Cases of Sanctions for Improper Execution of National R&D over 5 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] It has been revealed that there were 2,534 cases of improper execution of national research and development projects over the past five years.

On the 7th, Assemblyman Jo Jeong-sik (Democratic Party, Siheung-eul, Gyeonggi Province) of the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee analyzed the national audit data received from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The amount recovered from project funds and penalty surcharges due to sanctions reached 84.2 billion KRW.

Among the cases of improper use of research funds, the most frequent sanction was participation restriction with 1,528 cases, followed by project fund recovery with 712 cases, and penalty surcharges with about 295 cases.

By ministry, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy had the highest number with 907 cases, followed by the Ministry of Science and ICT (554 cases) and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (476 cases). Notably, the number of sanctions for improper execution of research funds in these three ministries totaled 1,937 cases, accounting for 76% of all sanctions. In particular, the Ministry of Science and ICT saw the number of sanctions for improper execution of research funds increase more than fivefold over five years.

Assemblyman Jo stated, "Executing national research and development projects by improper means can also discourage the enthusiasm of diligent researchers, so it is necessary to eradicate improper use of research funds from the root through thorough prior prevention and post-measures."

He added, "Currently, efforts are underway to integrate the research fund management systems operated separately by 17 ministries into two systems (Integrated Ezbaro, Integrated RCMS). Through systematic integration, research administration should be simplified so that researchers can focus on their research, and a system to prevent improper research activities in advance by strengthening monitoring of research fund execution must be established."

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