'Ministry of Industry R&D' Misuse Amount Reaches 7.8 Billion Won in the Last 3 Years

Amount Embezzled in Labor Costs Detected Until June This Year Reaches 1.9 Billion Won... Over 12 Times Increase Compared to Previous Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The amount of fraudulent use of research and development (R&D) funds by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has been increasing significantly every year.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to Lee Gyumin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea and the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Enterprises Committee, the amount of fraudulent use of research funds from 2018 to June of this year reached 7.86 billion KRW (70 cases).

The amount of fraudulent use by year was 1.83 billion KRW (26 cases) in 2018 and 2.78 billion KRW (27 cases) in 2019, an increase of 51%. The amount detected as fraudulent use up to June this year was 3.24 billion KRW (17 cases), already exceeding last year's scale.

By research management specialized institutions, the amounts of R&D fraudulent use were 3.58 billion KRW (40 cases) at the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, 2.29 billion KRW (9 cases) at the Korea Industrial Technology Promotion Agency, and 1.98 billion KRW (21 cases) at the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute, in that order.

By type of fraudulent receipt, the most common was use for purposes other than research and development, amounting to 4.29 billion KRW (38 cases).

Misappropriation of labor costs was 3.12 billion KRW (25 cases), collusion with supplying companies was 330 million KRW (3 cases), and false or duplicate evidence was 110 million KRW (4 cases), in that order.

The amount detected as misappropriation of labor costs this year was 1.9 billion KRW, which is more than 12 times higher than the previous year.

Rep. Lee said, "Although the government and ministries conduct joint inspections of national R&D projects every year, fraudulent use has not been eradicated," and added, "The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy should root out R&D embezzlement behaviors through meticulous project monitoring."