신성철 KAIST 총장 부당 수사 국제학술지 네이처도 가세..."한국 과학계가 항의하고 있다" South Korean scientists protest treatment of university president accused of misusing funds
South Korean scientists protest treatment of university president accused of misusing funds
Researchers in South Korea have criticized the nation’s science ministry for its handling of an investigation into the president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, the country’s top technical university.
Scientists say calls for KAIST president Shin Sung-Chul's suspension are based on insufficient evidence.Credit: RisingSeon/CC BY-SA 3.0
신성철 KAIST 총장 부당 수사 국제학술지 네이처도 가세..."한국 과학계가 항의하고 있다" 미국 로렌스버클리국립연구소(LBNL)에 이어 네이처, "정치적 개입" 입장 밝혀 부당한 모함에 빗발치는 세계 과학계의 비난 신성철 KAIST 총장이 대구경북과학기술원(DGIST) 총장 재직 시절 미국 로렌스버클리국립연구소(LBNL)에 부당한 돈을 송금하고 제자를 편법 지원했다는 의혹을 받는 가운데, 과학전문지 네이처가 13일(현지시간) 신 총장 관련 의혹과 그 상황, 이에 대한 미국 측 입장을 보도했다. 왜 없는 죄 만들어 뒤집어 씌우나 앞서 이달 11일 KAIST 교수 200여 명을 포함한 700여명의 과학자들이 신 총장에 대한 과학기술정보통신부의 검찰고발과 직무정지 요청을 비판하는 성명을 냈다. 또 부당 송금 의혹을 받은 LBNL는 10일 유영민 과학기술정보통신부 장관과 이장무 KAIST 이사회 이사장에게 신 총장을 둘러싼 의혹에 대해 연구소의 공식 입장을 담은 서한을 보내왔다. 네이처는 '한국 과학자들이 자금을 잘못 사용한 혐의를 받는 총장에 대한 (한국 정부의) 대우에 항의하고 있다"는 제목의 기사를 통해 “부당 송금 혐의로 한국 정부가 신 총장을 검찰에 고발한데 대해 한국 과학자들이 이를 부당한 처사로 보고 있고 정치적 목적이 개입됐다며 항의하고 있다”고 전했다. 네이처는 “한국 정부가 신 총장이 LBNL의 X선 현미경 사용과 관련한 국가 연구비를 부당 사용했다고 주장하고 있다”며 “한국 정부가 신 총장에 대한 직무정지를 요청했고 국가 연구비 부당 사용한 혐의로 검찰에 고발했다”고 보도했다. 네이처는 이어 "한국 과학자들은 아직 증거가 불충분한 상황에서 신 총장의 직무정지는 너무 이르며 일반적으로 해외에 있는 장비를 사용하는데 내는 사용료와 관련한 관례 때문에 생긴 오해라고 생각한다”면서 “많은 과학자들이 이번 의혹이 이전 정부가 고용한 신 총장을 찍어내려는 정치적 목적이 있는 것으로 본다"며 한국 과학계 분위기를 전했다.
네이처 홈페이지 이래도 '신성철 KAIST 총장' 죄 만들어 씌우나? https://conpaper.tistory.com/73551 edited by kcontents 정부 안팎 관계자들에 따르면 2012년의 LBNL과 DGIST 사이의 계약에 포함되지 않았던 22억원이 LBNL에 LBNL 장비 사용료 명목으로 지불됐다. 이 장비는 사전 승인만 있다면 무상으로 제공되는 장비인데 이에 대한 사용료를 신 총장이 지불하라고 지시했다는 것이다. 네이처는 이와 관련해 “이번 의혹은 지난달 25일 한국 SBS가 보도하면서 이면계약이라 규정됐다"며 "한국 정부가 부당 송금한 22억원이 신 총장의 제자에게 지불됐고 이는 횡령에 해당한다고 밝히면서 지난달 28일 신 총장을 비롯한 관련자들을 검찰에 고발했다”고 전했다. 네이처는 KAIST가 보낸 서한을 공개하며 “신 총장과 DGIST는 LBNL과 이면계약과 같은 불법 행위나 직권남용을 한 적이 없고 계약은 미국에너지부(DOE)와 LBNL의 승인 하에 이뤄졌다”는 신 총장의 입장을 전했다. 네이처는 “신 총장이 네이처에 직접 서한을 보내 해당 제자에 대한 특혜는 없었다고 주장했다"며 "이번 달 4일 기자 간담회를 열어 임 모 제자의 인건비나 고용과 관련해 전혀 관련된 바 없다고 밝혔다”고 전했다. 네이처는 "지난 10일 LBNL이 신 총장을 옹호하는 서한을 한국 정부에 보냈다"며 "요는 ‘LBNL과 DGIST의 계약은 국제공동연구 관례집을 따라 체결됐고 한국 언론에서 보도되는 내용은 사실을 호도하고 있다’며 이중계약은 없었다고 밝혔다”고 전했다. 또 “한국 정부는 2건의 진술을 통해 신 총장이 횡령과 위법을 저질렀으며 공공기관을 규제하는 정부의 권한에 따라 그의 직무를 정치 요청했다”는 상황도 함께 전했다. 네이처는 "DGIST총장 시절 신 총장이 그의 연구소 연구자들에게 세계에서 가장 소문난 물리학연구소의 장비를 사용할 수 있도록 공동 연구계약을 이끌었다"고 소개하며 장비 이용료를 내게된 이유도 소개했다. 처음엔 10주 시간 동안 장비를 사용할 수 있었고 당시 DGIST는 비용을 지불하지 않았지만 2014년과 2016년에 계약을 개정해 매년 장비 사용료를 내기로 하고 DGIST가 해당 장비의 사용시간 50%를 확보했다는 것이다.
네이처는 "이 장비 사용료가 이 장비 사용 관련 25개의 다른 계약들과 비교해 비슷하거나 낮다으며 장비 운영비의 13%를 내면서 50%의 장비 사용시간을 확보했다"는 LBNL측이 한국 정부에 밝힌 내용을 소개했다. 네이처는 정부의 정치적 개입 의혹과 정부와 과학계간의 관계도 설명했다. 네이처에 따르면 몇몇 과학자들은 이전 박근혜 정부에 의해 임명된 신 총장에 대해 문재인 정부가 정치적 목적을 가지고 행동한다고 본다는 것이다 네이처는 "과거에도 국가 연구소장들이 임기 중반에 사임한 적이 있다면서 한국에서는 정부가 바뀌면 이런 일이 흔하다”고 밝혔다. 네이처는 마지막으로 LBNL서한과 과학자들의 성명 관련 질문들을 정부에 보냈지만 답변이 없었다고 밝혔다. 고재원 기자 jawon1212@donga.com 동아사이언스 |
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Researchers in South Korea have criticized the nation’s science ministry for its handling of an investigation into the president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, the country’s top technical university.
The ministry alleges that Shin Sung-Chul misused public funds in his previous job at another university by making payments to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California. The payments were part of a deal in which scientists at South Korean universities were guaranteed access to one of LBNL’s imaging facilities, an X-ray microscopy beamline. The ministry has referred the allegations to prosecutors and requested that KAIST’s board of trustees suspend Shin when it meets on Friday.
Many scientists suspect that the allegations are part of a politically motivated attempt to remove Shin, who was hired under the previous administration. The call to suspend him seems to have been rushed and is based on insufficient evidence, they say. Researchers also say that the ministry has misconstrued a common practice in which institutions pay fees to use equipment at international facilities.
The ministry says the payments — 2.2 billion won (US$1.9 million) in total — were not part of a 2012 agreement between LBNL and the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), a publicly funded institute where Shin was president from 2011 to 2017 before taking over the presidency of KAIST. It says that these payments were therefore illegal. “There is no reason to pay for the use of the equipment, which is owned by [LBNL], and can be used for free with prior approval,” the ministry said in a 7 December statement.
The ministry says the alleged misuse was uncovered by its audit team. The allegations were first publicized by South Korean broadcaster SBS on 25 November, and characterized as an under-the-table deal. The ministry says that some of the 2.2 billion won were paid to one individual, a former student of Shin's, and that this could constitute embezzlement. The ministry referred Shin's case — and that of three other individuals involved in hiring the former student — to prosecutors on 28 November.
Shin refutes the allegations that he embezzled money. In a statement sent to Nature from KAIST, he said that neither he nor DGIST was involved in any illegal activities or misconduct involving a double contract with LBNL, which is owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE). “The collaboration contract between two institutions was fully approved through all proper rules and regulations of the DOE and LBNL’s contracting processes,” he said.
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Letters of support
On Monday, LBNL sent a letter to the ministry — seen by Nature — supporting Shin’s version of events. It says that the agreement was a customary approach to conducting collaborative research with international partners and that the reported allegations “contain significant errors in fact and in assumptions”. The letter also said there was no "dual contract" between LBNL and DGIST.
A petition in support of Shin, organized by the KAIST physics department — where Shin worked from 1989 to 2011 — was made public on Tuesday. As of Thursday morning, it had collected more than 810 signatures from researchers at South Korean institutions, including 257 signatures from KAIST academics.
The petition says that calls to suspend Shin lack due process because they are based on an ongoing investigation and unproven accusations. “There simply is not enough evidence to justify suspending him of his duties”, the petition states. It adds that KAIST’s board of trustees should reject the ministry’s request to suspend him. The ministry has “treated him like a criminal”, says one of the petition organizers, who requests anonymity because they fear retaliation from the government for speaking out.
The science ministry said in two statements that Shin’s actions violated laws against embezzlement and breach of trust, and that the request for his suspension was carried out in accordance with the ministry's authority to regulate public institutions.
Embezzlement or collaboration?
As president of DGIST, Shin brokered an agreement with LBNL in 2012 that gave his institute’s researchers the chance to work with one of the world’s most respected physics labs. The collaboration received ten weeks of beam time, which DGIST did not pay for.
The agreement expanded in 2014 and again two years later, securing DGIST half of the time on one of LBNL’s X-ray microscopy beamlines, which its researchers used to explore nanomaterials — a coup for a new and little-known institution, say researchers. As part of the arrangement, DGIST paid an annual facility fee.
In its letter, LBNL said the collaboration required significant instrument time beyond the scope of a standard short-term project, and that the payments supported the operation and staffing costs of running the beamline. LBNL also noted that its Center for X-ray Optics has had 25 similar cost-sharing agreements with universities, research labs and industry partners.
The petition from researchers notes that the agreement also made sense from DGIST’s point of view, because it secured 50% of the beam’s time for 13% of the running cost.
Favouritism
The science ministry has also accused Shin, four other DGIST professors and one of his former students — now a staff scientist at LBNL — of misconduct. The ministry alleges that they did not follow the correct process when granting the former student an adjunct position at DGIST during Shin’s presidency.
The ministry also alleges that roughly half of the 2.2 billion won that DGIST paid to LBNL was paid to this student, whom the ministry has identified only by the family name Im, after they became a staff scientist at LBNL. The ministry alleges that this could constitute embezzlement on Shin’s part.
Shin told Nature that he did not offer his former student favourable treatment. In a press conference on 4 December, he also said he had had nothing to do with determining Im’s salary or hiring Im at LBNL or DGIST.
In its letter, LBNL says its researcher is a world-recognized expert in soft X-ray microscopy; that it had followed its own hiring and salary disbursement procedures; and that no DGIST funds had been sent directly to the researcher.
When a researcher at LBNL with the surname Im was contacted by Nature, they referred questions to LBNL’s public-relations team.
The ministry did not respond to Nature’s questions about the LBNL letter or the petition from scientists.
Political interference
Some researchers see the KAIST affair as part of an ongoing political purge of public science institutes by the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, which came to power last year after the previous, conservative president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached and imprisoned for abuse of power, bribery and coercion.
Relations between the science ministry and researchers have deteriorated since then, in part owing to a series of controversial nominations for key science leadership positions. One of those was Park Ki-young, tapped by Moon to lead the science ministry’s innovation office in August last year. When Park was a presidential adviser in the mid-2000s, she was a major supporter of Hwang Woo Suk, the cloning researcher who was disgraced in 2004 when he was found to have committed misconduct. Park stepped down from the innovation office after pushback from the scientific community.
Furthermore, several directors of national research organizations have resigned in the middle of their terms. Forced resignations are common in South Korea when the presidency switches parties.
But the KAIST case and the science ministry’s rush to judgement is unusual even by these standards, says So Young Kim, head of the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST. “What’s happening is quite hard to justify.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07742-x
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