‘Vocational group under fire for collecting donations for gov`t citations’

“I have to submit records of my achievements. We cannot consider serving a prison term an achievement, and it is ambiguous.”

“(Still) you paid 10 million won (8,800 U.S. dollars). What are you going to do with that?”

This is part of the conversation between participants at an achievements record review meeting (meeting for recommending candidates for government medals and awards) of the Federation of Professional Economic-person Societies in January this year. The federation is an umbrella group of vocational societies that are based on the “Act on Promotion for Economic Professionals,” which was enacted in 2004. The organization has been caught by the Safety and Public Administration Ministry for taking donations worth up to tens of thousands of dollars from its members in return for recommending candidates for winners of orders of merit and other prizes from the government.

The Dong-A Ilbo acquired voice records from meetings of the review committee under the federation from 2009 to 2013. The meeting was recorded to make meeting minutes.

At the February 2009 meeting, participants determined the amount of donations according to the level of orders of merit and prizes from the government. A participant suggested, “Over the past eight years, there were all different people including those who paid 50 million won (44,000 dollars), and those who did not pay even 10 million won (8,800 dollars). We should set a recommended amount. No one will pay if we don’t set the amount.” Then, participants agreed that the federation receive 40 million won (35,200 dollars) for an order of merit, 10 million won (8,800 dollars) for an award, 5 million won (4,400 dollars) for a presidential citation, and 2 million won (1,760 dollars) for a prime minister’s citation.

Some raised concern over possible problems with forcing donations. “This part should not be kept on records,” said one of the participants. “Let’s not officially request (people to be recommended), and instead meet them in person to persuade.”

At a second meeting held in the same month, a participant said, “Despite making ample achievements, one should be excluded from candidates if he or she does not make contributions (to the federation) both materially and spiritually.” He added, “One will not be honored just because he or she made a lot of achievements. If one made achievements, he or she could win a prize from other source,” in disclosing the organization’s policy to use donations as a major criterion to determine winners of prizes. Other attendees agreed.

This practice runs counter to the provision that “The degree of contributions (payment of membership fees or donations) to a certain organization shouldn`t be reflected in the review standard,” as set forth in the guidelines for awards and citations by the Security and Public Administration Ministry.