hankyoreh

By Kim Jong-chul, senior staff writer
A $500,000 award (557,870,000 won) given in March 2011 has been included among assets reported by President Lee Myung-bak to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MPAS).　
The award was the United Arab Emirates Zayed International Prize for the Environment. According to its official website, the Zayed Prize “recognizes and promotes pioneering contributions in the field of environment and sustainable development.”　
According to South Korean anti-corruption laws, every high-ranking civil servant has to report their assets every year to MPAS. The ministry then publishes this data in an annual report. President Lee’s award was confirmed by this report. 　
Speaking at a briefing Friday, Blue House spokesperson Park Jung-ha said, “since [Lee] received [the prize] as an individual, it isn’t right that it go into the national coffers.” Park also said, “no decision has been reached yet, but he plans to use [the award money] in a way suited to the meaning of the prize after he leaves office.”
It may be the least one can do to trust in the good intentions of a president elected by the people of South Korea. But apart from any questions of good intentions, one has to ask whether it is proper that prize money earned while in office should go into President Lee’s personal bank account for any length of time.
Even if the official in question is awarded the money as an individual, the award recognizes actions related to the execution of official duties. As its reason for selecting Lee as winner last year, the secretariat for the Zayed Prize cited his contribution to job creation by channeling climate change challenges into new growth through Green Growth policies. A lot of people are asking whether the UAE gave Lee the award to thank him for building nuclear power plants there at cut-rate cost. In any event, it was given for the policies he carried out as President of South Korea, not private activities as an individual.
The Public Service Ethics Act states that if public servants receive any gifts exceeding 100 thousand won (roughly $100) from other countries during their service, they must report and return said gifts to the state. The same applies to gifts received by family members of officials. This is based on the view that it was their status as an official that resulted in their receiving the gift, and that the gift should be possessed by the people of South Korea rather than the individual. 　
If we accept the Blue House’s official logic that an award received as an individual is that individual‘s property, then there’s nothing to stop interest groups from offering what amounts to legal bribes to public officials as “prize money.” Can President Lee take it upon himself now to set a new precedent in making a public official‘s prize money the property of the state, rather than waiting until after his term ends to do so?
　
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