By Chung Ah-young
Plagiarism is everywhere in Korea where novelists, scholars and politicians habitually copy other people's work, making people insensible to this unethical practice. Public officials are no exception.
According to data released by Rep. Kim Han-pyo of the ruling Saenuri Party, Thursday, dozens of officials at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) allegedly plagiarized others' report papers, which were submitted after they finished an overseas training program. Government officials who attended the program with the state's financial support were required to submit reports on thier return.
Of 64 reports submitted between 2005 and 2014, Kim picked five written from 2013 to 2015 in a random sampling to check plagiarism using Copykiller, a plagiarism filtering website.
All five of the sampled papers included multiple parts copied from documents and other reports written by other government officials or from reports circulated on the Internet. In one paper, such plagiarized parts made up 46 percent of the content, according to Kim.
"Those parts cannot be seen as mistakes because not only the texts but also the paragraphs were exactly the same as the originals," Kim said.
But the MOTIE's review committee of the overseas training program failed to filter out plagiarism when it examined the papers. For officials who submit unqualified papers, the ministry can require them to rewrite the papers or suspend training expenses, but it has done neither to a single official.
"The committee has conducted such a poor review because committee members are all ministry officials," Kim said.
Government officials who take part in the long-term overseas training program for two years receive some 50 million won per year from the state. From 2005 to 2014, 3,159 government officials studied abroad under the program, and of them, 162 were MOTIE officials.
"The state sponsors overseas study for the officials so they can enlarge their knowledge and experience. But they copy others' papers, and it is a waste of taxpayers' money," Kim said.
Not only junior officials but also a slew of high-ranking officials have been involved in plagiarism. But many of them have gone through their official screenings to rise to top positions despite the plagiarism allegations, probably because it is so common.
Health and Welfare Minister Chung Chin-youb was inaugurated last month although he was accused of plagiarism on three of his papers published in journals by the Korean Orthopaedic Association from his students' academic theses.
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, who stepped down in late May amid bribery allegations, had also passed his confirmation hearings despite his alleged plagiarism in being awarded a PhD from Dankook University in 1994.
Former Presidential chief of staff Huh Tae-yeol and Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Yoo Il-ho were also suspected of plagiarism.
Plagiarism is everywhere in Korea where novelists, scholars and politicians habitually copy other people's work, making people insensible to this unethical practice. Public officials are no exception.
According to data released by Rep. Kim Han-pyo of the ruling Saenuri Party, Thursday, dozens of officials at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) allegedly plagiarized others' report papers, which were submitted after they finished an overseas training program. Government officials who attended the program with the state's financial support were required to submit reports on thier return.
Of 64 reports submitted between 2005 and 2014, Kim picked five written from 2013 to 2015 in a random sampling to check plagiarism using Copykiller, a plagiarism filtering website.
All five of the sampled papers included multiple parts copied from documents and other reports written by other government officials or from reports circulated on the Internet. In one paper, such plagiarized parts made up 46 percent of the content, according to Kim.
"Those parts cannot be seen as mistakes because not only the texts but also the paragraphs were exactly the same as the originals," Kim said.
But the MOTIE's review committee of the overseas training program failed to filter out plagiarism when it examined the papers. For officials who submit unqualified papers, the ministry can require them to rewrite the papers or suspend training expenses, but it has done neither to a single official.
"The committee has conducted such a poor review because committee members are all ministry officials," Kim said.
Government officials who take part in the long-term overseas training program for two years receive some 50 million won per year from the state. From 2005 to 2014, 3,159 government officials studied abroad under the program, and of them, 162 were MOTIE officials.
"The state sponsors overseas study for the officials so they can enlarge their knowledge and experience. But they copy others' papers, and it is a waste of taxpayers' money," Kim said.
Not only junior officials but also a slew of high-ranking officials have been involved in plagiarism. But many of them have gone through their official screenings to rise to top positions despite the plagiarism allegations, probably because it is so common.
Health and Welfare Minister Chung Chin-youb was inaugurated last month although he was accused of plagiarism on three of his papers published in journals by the Korean Orthopaedic Association from his students' academic theses.
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, who stepped down in late May amid bribery allegations, had also passed his confirmation hearings despite his alleged plagiarism in being awarded a PhD from Dankook University in 1994.
Former Presidential chief of staff Huh Tae-yeol and Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Yoo Il-ho were also suspected of plagiarism.
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