By Choi Sung-jin
Corruption and irregularities haunting some Korean cultural centers overseas have earned them the disgraceful nickname of "corruption centers," an opposition lawmaker said Tuesday.
"In the case of the Korean Cultural Center in Russia, all of its four directors since its inception in 2006 have had to leave their post after getting punished for one irregularity or another," said Rep. Park Kyung-mi, of the opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, during the parliamentary inspection of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports.
The government operates 29 cultural centers in 25 countries, and there were 11 cases of accounting fraud or employment-related irregularities between 2012 and 2015, according to data the ministry submitted to the opposition lawmaker.
At the Moscow cultural center, its first and second directors embezzled government money amounting to tens of millions of won each. The third chief employed his wife and daughter as the lecturer and administrative clerk at a Korean language institute attached to the cultural center, paying them about 100 million won ($90,000) as wages. The Korean ambassador to Russia warned him to rectify the irregularity but to no avail. The fourth head was dismissed in May for failing to maintain his dignity as a public official.
Put together, Korean cultural centers in 11 countries - Russia, Vietnam, Britain, the United States (Los Angeles), Brazil, France, Thailand, Poland, Spain, India and China (Shanghai) - were criticized by the ministry and the Board of Audit and Inspection for various problems, ranging from embezzlement of money by directors and poor financial management, to opaque hiring procedures, including nepotistic employment, during the four-year period.
These problems are less due to personal qualifications of directors than to limits in structural and operational systems of overseas cultural centers sandwiched between the culture ministry and foreign ministry, officials said, wanting to remain anonymous.
In short, cultural centers abroad are in a supervisory dead zone, as the foreign ministry has the authority to open these facilities and appoint their heads but the culture ministry exerts budgetary influence over them.
As cultural centers belong to foreign missions, their directors should report to ambassadors and consul-generals but the diplomats' right of command over directors are weak because the facilities, budgets and employees belong to the culture ministry, which shows why they are not supervised properly, the officials said. Also, most staff members are local employees hired by directors, so they can hardly take issue with irregularities committed by their employers.
More problematic, the government has recently appointed an increasing number of people who have little relationship with, or experience in, cultural or public relations affairs as the heads of cultural centers abroad, causing doubts about their expertise.
Of 69 directors who headed the 29 cultural centers until 2012, 54, or 78 percent, were officials with stints at the culture ministry. Out of the five directors at cultural centers opened since 2013, however, four, or 80 percent, came from other government ministries, the data showed.
"Officials from the foreign ministry and finance ministry have recently taken part in the screening process for reason of ensuring fairness in selection, which has reduced the possibility of picking directors armed with both expertise and a sense of responsibility," a culture ministry official said.
It is also true, however, the culture ministry can hardly fill all the top posts of overseas cultural centers, which have been rapidly increasing in number, other officials said.
The government, under President Park Geun-hye's slogan to "flourish our culture," plans to increase the number of centers to 33 by 2017. However, noting that 17 new cultural centers have opened over the past eight-and-a-half years or so leading to their sloppy operation, cultural experts said the time has long passed for the government to shift from quantitative to qualitative growth of these centers.
"The loose management of these overseas cultural centers is due to the conservative government's haste to demonstrate voluminous expansion," Rep. Park said. "The government should strengthen its supervision after making certain of the ministry holding eventual responsibility for these centers -- as in the cases of Japan, France and the U.S., in which foreign ministries hold final authority, and China that has its culture ministry exercise the main authority."
Corruption and irregularities haunting some Korean cultural centers overseas have earned them the disgraceful nickname of "corruption centers," an opposition lawmaker said Tuesday.
"In the case of the Korean Cultural Center in Russia, all of its four directors since its inception in 2006 have had to leave their post after getting punished for one irregularity or another," said Rep. Park Kyung-mi, of the opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, during the parliamentary inspection of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports.
The government operates 29 cultural centers in 25 countries, and there were 11 cases of accounting fraud or employment-related irregularities between 2012 and 2015, according to data the ministry submitted to the opposition lawmaker.
At the Moscow cultural center, its first and second directors embezzled government money amounting to tens of millions of won each. The third chief employed his wife and daughter as the lecturer and administrative clerk at a Korean language institute attached to the cultural center, paying them about 100 million won ($90,000) as wages. The Korean ambassador to Russia warned him to rectify the irregularity but to no avail. The fourth head was dismissed in May for failing to maintain his dignity as a public official.
Put together, Korean cultural centers in 11 countries - Russia, Vietnam, Britain, the United States (Los Angeles), Brazil, France, Thailand, Poland, Spain, India and China (Shanghai) - were criticized by the ministry and the Board of Audit and Inspection for various problems, ranging from embezzlement of money by directors and poor financial management, to opaque hiring procedures, including nepotistic employment, during the four-year period.
These problems are less due to personal qualifications of directors than to limits in structural and operational systems of overseas cultural centers sandwiched between the culture ministry and foreign ministry, officials said, wanting to remain anonymous.
In short, cultural centers abroad are in a supervisory dead zone, as the foreign ministry has the authority to open these facilities and appoint their heads but the culture ministry exerts budgetary influence over them.
As cultural centers belong to foreign missions, their directors should report to ambassadors and consul-generals but the diplomats' right of command over directors are weak because the facilities, budgets and employees belong to the culture ministry, which shows why they are not supervised properly, the officials said. Also, most staff members are local employees hired by directors, so they can hardly take issue with irregularities committed by their employers.
More problematic, the government has recently appointed an increasing number of people who have little relationship with, or experience in, cultural or public relations affairs as the heads of cultural centers abroad, causing doubts about their expertise.
Of 69 directors who headed the 29 cultural centers until 2012, 54, or 78 percent, were officials with stints at the culture ministry. Out of the five directors at cultural centers opened since 2013, however, four, or 80 percent, came from other government ministries, the data showed.
"Officials from the foreign ministry and finance ministry have recently taken part in the screening process for reason of ensuring fairness in selection, which has reduced the possibility of picking directors armed with both expertise and a sense of responsibility," a culture ministry official said.
It is also true, however, the culture ministry can hardly fill all the top posts of overseas cultural centers, which have been rapidly increasing in number, other officials said.
The government, under President Park Geun-hye's slogan to "flourish our culture," plans to increase the number of centers to 33 by 2017. However, noting that 17 new cultural centers have opened over the past eight-and-a-half years or so leading to their sloppy operation, cultural experts said the time has long passed for the government to shift from quantitative to qualitative growth of these centers.
"The loose management of these overseas cultural centers is due to the conservative government's haste to demonstrate voluminous expansion," Rep. Park said. "The government should strengthen its supervision after making certain of the ministry holding eventual responsibility for these centers -- as in the cases of Japan, France and the U.S., in which foreign ministries hold final authority, and China that has its culture ministry exercise the main authority."
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