Sejong Institute chairman announces he will step down

Social Affairs

Published: 28 Feb. 2023, 20:04

Sejong Institute chairman announces he will step down

Moon Chung-in, the chairman of Sejong Institute, speaks during the East Asia Wisemen's Roundtable held in central Seoul on October 2021. [NEWS1]

Moon Chung-in, chairman of the national policy think tank Sejong Institute under the Foreign Ministry, said he will step down from his position, after the recent audit by the ministry to inspect the institute on the case of alleged embezzlement of some 1 billion won ($757,000) every year.

Moon served as the special advisor for unification, diplomacy and national security affairs for President Moon Jae-in.

Moon expressed his intent to no longer serve his role at the institute on Monday, according to the Sejong Institute on Tuesday. It will soon open a board meeting to vote on Moon’s resignation. A source from the think tank said his resignation may be linked to the recent budget audit.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eyeing the strategy research course run by the Sejong Institute to teach public officials of central and district governments and employees of public institutions. The ministry audited the financial data of the research course last week to identify any misuse.

The revelation of any intended budget diversion may lead to a criminal prosecution against those in charge, such as the chairman and president.

The tank began running the course in 1995 to educate key leaders for policymaking. The annual fee per person is around 19 million won. With around 100 officials taking the course every year, along with additional overheads provided by the Foreign Ministry, the total annual budget for the course mounts to 2.2 billion won.

The Sejong Institute building located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi [JOONGANG SUNDAY]

The ministry suspects 1 billion of that budget is excessive. The main target of its recent audit was on the allegation of the think tank officials using the leftover money to purchase office supplies such as PCs and for payrolls.

A foreign affairs source who claims he is well aware of the practice said it became a tradition for the Sejong Institute to use the leftover budget of some 1 billion won, because the Foreign Ministry did not supervise the course thoroughly since the research center was a civilian one.

The source added that district governments that sent their employees to the course also did not scrutinize the financial process as the course fees were relatively small.

Sejong Institute refuted the allegation claiming that “overheads” of some hundreds of million won are required to run the course. It argued that the money was used to pay for not only the guest lecturers’ lecture fees but also for expenses necessary to run the course, such as gas, electricity and maintenance bills. Last year, the tank paid around 290 million won for utility and 3.1 billion won for property tax.

“It’s a stretch to say that the center diverted the leftover money or overstated the budget estimate to receive more,” said a spokesperson for the Sejong Institute, adding that it is short in the budget if all related expenses are accounted for.

Some experts see this audit as a “targeted” audit to change the head of the national strategic research center, because the chairman is nominated by the central government.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under both conservative and liberal administrations, treated the civilian think tank as a de facto affiliate and wanted it to play a supporting role for government policies,” an ex-president of the institute said.

“This approach stripped the Sejong Insitute’s competitive power as a think tank,” he added.

BY JEONG JIN-WOO [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]