`Prof. at Leading Think Tank Raised Own Salary`

Professors at the School of Public Policy and Management under the state-run Korea Development Institute are found to have taken days off to take private overseas trips or playing golf without proper permission, the Board of Audit and Inspection said yesterday.

Nine professors took 35 overseas trips without prior approval between 2005 and last year. Eleven took days off without reporting it to play golf over the same period.

The government watchdog said a combined 15 faculty members illegally took 186 days off to take overseas trips or play golf.

The school’s former dean Jung Jin-seung, now a professor, also raised his annual pay and bonus between 2001 and 2007. Jung raised his salary every year on his own without getting approval from his boss, the institute`s president.

As a result, Jung’s aggregate annual pay including salary, bonuses and allowances increased 78 percent from 128.3 million won (106,384 U.S. dollars) in 2002 to 229.1 million won (247,567 dollars) in 2006, when his term expired.

Jung’s annual pay was 87 percent higher than that of his boss, who earned 107 million won (115,675 dollars) in 2006. Jung also bought a membership to a sports center near his residence in Seocho-gu, Seoul, with school funds from his school, and used the indoor tennis court there by himself.

In his defense, Jung said, “It is not uncommon that a researcher is paid more than the chief (president) at KDI,” adding, “I purchased the membership to the sports center in my own name because it is cheaper to buy it as an individual than a corporation, and I used the facility with the people concerned, including graduate students.”

kimkihy@donga.com