Problematic Behavior of Auditors from Political Circle

Seo Nam-pyo, president of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) had the following experience at his first meeting with the school’s professors after he took office in last July.

Yeo In-cheol, auditor and former leader of the Uri Party’s Daejeon Seo-Eul district, arrived at the meeting hall and greeted the professors. Then, he suddenly walked away from the hall with an angry expression on his face as he confirmed his position. This was because his position was not arranged beside the president Seo at the rectangular meeting table. Auditor Yeo said, “I was upset because the school did not treat me as well as an auditor should be treated. An inspector is an executive of the school, together with the president.”

Daedeok Research Complex in Daejeon has 19 government funded research institutes. The complex, staffed mostly by science and engineering majors, is not familiar with politics. As former political figures have secured positions like executive directors or auditors, this has recently caused discordant situations in the complex.

Although Doctors in science and engineering do not explicitly express their complaints, they are whining about the behavior of those political figures, and auditors from political circles are grumbling, saying “we are not being treated well.”

Mr. Yeo participated in the Korea-China High-Tech EXPO 2006 with the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST) at the Beijing International Convention Center, Beijing, China, in December last year. However, he returned home two days into the four day event. This was because the vice-president of the KAIST, who accompanied him to the meeting, was treated better as a representative of the school than he was.

He said, “I didn’t want to talk about the specifics of the situation, but I came home because I was very displeased at the time. As an auditor is the only executive of the school, except for its president, the vice-president attended the meeting just as a vice-president, not as a person acting on behalf of the president. ”

Meanwhile, during the Opening Ceremony of the Cavendish-KAIST Research Cooperation Center, he sat on the stage and the director of the center sat in a visitor’s seat.

Also, there has been controversy surrounding Mr. Yeo’s spending of expediency funds on sending wreaths to pro-government politicians at several events.

Kim Hee-jung, lawmaker of Grand National Party (GNP), said at a general meeting of the House Steering Committee, “Auditor Yeo used a corporate credit card to pay for wreaths he sent to Chung Dong-young, former chairman of Uri Party, and Rhyu Si-min, former minister of Health and Welfare, when they took office.” Mr. Yeo was investigated by the Office for Government Policy Coordination after such facts were revealed during an inspection of State Administration last year.

In addition, when the school invited Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. Ambassador to Korea, and Song Young-sun, lawmaker of the GNP, to a lecture on leadership, he criticized organizers of the event for having conservative figures.

At the time, he said, “As they are political figures, they are not appropriate lecturers for a leadership lecture, if not for other lectures.”

A representative of the KAIST, however, retorted his claim, saying, “At the lecture, Alexander Vershbow received tricky questions from the students, but it was a terrific discussion and many students want him to return for another lecture.”

In addition, Park Soo-hoon, auditor of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, was summoned and investigated by the Seoul Central District Court in 2005.

At that time, a director of one of the institutes in the Daedeok Research Complex accused him of libel, as Mr. Park sent those in positions of authority an email saying the director met his colleague who was in a high position in the government and asked him for his position.

After that, Mr. Park apologized and solved the problem by asking him to withdraw the complaint. However, he said that “I had no recollection of such a matter, and felt no need to answer for it.”

Jeong Byeong-ok, former director of the Daedeok Research Complex Managing Headquarters and former member of the Millennium Democratic Party, was ousted from his position when his inappropriate use of funds was exposed.

Beside those cases, several inspectors from the political circle within the complex were criticized for allegedly holding a meeting separate from an auditing consultation meeting in Daejeon. With regard to this issue, Mr. Yeo responded, “We never held a separate meeting. We just met those inspectors in an auditing consultation meeting.”

An official of a government-funded research institute cautiously said, “Although people from Science and Engineering can hardly understand the behavior of the inspectors, they cannot express their complaints because those auditors are closely linked to the government or the political circle which finances the institutes.”

mhjee@donga.com doyocedonga.com