Education safety institution official faked Finnish invitation to justify travel, inspection finds

Officials from a government agency in charge of safety measures for educational facilities have been found to have had a travel agency falsify an invitation from a Finnish education agency in an attempt to provide justification for their chief to travel abroad, the state auditor said Thursday.

While pushing for an overseas training trip for its staff last year, the Korea Institute of Educational Facility Safety decided to make a document to the effect that the Department of Education and Learning in the Finnish city of Vantaa invited the agency's chief, even though such an invitation had not been confirmed.

The unidentified travel agency then made the document at the request of the institution.

Based on the false document, an institution official drafted a separate document as if the Finnish agency had extended an invitation, and sent it to the Gyeonggi Province Office of Education for budget appropriation for the trip, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).

During last year's parliamentary audit, a senior institution official even submitted a written answer that the Finnish agency inquired about the institution chief's ability to go on the trip, according to the BAI's findings.

The BAI said it has demanded disciplinary measures for three officials.

But the auditor said it was not confirmed whether the head of the institution was involved in the scheme.

Yonhap