President Lee Jae-myung on the 17th, during a work report for the Government-funded research institute, the national think tank (grants-funded research institutes), said there seem to be organizations that make you wonder, "Do we really need to separate them and set them up as independent bodies?" as he raised the issue of consolidation. A criticism also emerged that the proportion of non-research staff within research institutes is too high. With this work report held for the first time in four months since Dec., the government's push to restructure and consolidate public institutions could gain momentum.
In the afternoon at the Blue House state guesthouse, Lee received reports on work and organizational status from 102 public and related institutions and said, "Research institutes usually seem to have 30 or so researchers set up separately by research field," adding, "Of course, in some cases they need to be independent, but from the public's perspective, do we really have to split them into independent institutions and manage them separately?"
He continued, "Each institution probably has a president and secretarial staff, and at the very least, wouldn't they have to pay salaries and file taxes separately? Personnel and budgets are separate, too," adding, "To a non-expert, many look similar. There are fields that make you think, 'Do we really have to do this separately? Can't we do it together?'"
In response, Chair Lee Han-joo of the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences (NRC) said, "All research institutes were created under individual laws, and later a law regarding grants-funded research institutes was enacted to manage them in an integrated manner," adding, "We are working to integrate common areas such as audits and accounting." President Lee said, "The organizations themselves are independent under individual laws, but they are managed in an integrated way under the law on grants-funded research institutes, so we should study (organizational restructuring)."
He also took issue with the share of non-research staff. After receiving a report that among the Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI)'s total of 221 personnel there are 80 researchers, 68 non-research staff, and 73 other permanent staff, Lee said, "The number of people who don't do research is far bigger than the number of researchers—the tail is wagging the dog." He then asked, "What do the 68 non-research staff do? Do they run side businesses to raise money and research funds? Or do they carry out the institution's original mission?"
KEDI President Ko Young-seon said, "Alongside research, we carry out many projects. We also produce Korea's education statistics, so there are many people on the non-research side."
Lee also addressed the share of researchers at the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU), saying, "Of the 91 current staff, 57 are actually engaged in research, and the remaining 34 seem to be support personnel who do not conduct research," adding, "Doesn't it strike you that there are too many support staff (who are not researchers)?"
This work report was attended by a total of 102 institutions, including 36 public institutions and 66 ministry-affiliated organizations that were not included in the government ministry work reports in Dec. last year.