South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT awarded special performance prizes to 4 civil servants for strong results including developing AI specialised in reviewing research and development budgets and pushing policies to strengthen basic communication rights.

The ministry said on Tuesday it held an awards ceremony for the third Special Performance Prize Scheme and honoured 4 officials: Hur Ji-su (허지수), Kim Mi-mi (김미미), Koo Hee-sun (구희선) and Lee Jeong-eun (이정은).

The scheme is designed to encourage challenge and innovation in the public service by rewarding civil servants who deliver outstanding results. It gives 10 million won to main award recipients and 3.5 million won to secondary recipients, along with a deputy prime minister's citation.

The ministry named Hur as a main award recipient and Kim as a secondary recipient for creating results by developing and using AI tailored to the R&D budget review process.

The winning project is a case of work innovation in which staff used AI, based on a strong understanding of their tasks and creativity, to improve the efficiency and professionalism of budget review work. The AI system they built for budget reviews identifies projects with a high degree of similarity or duplication to check in advance factors that could waste budgets and to improve the objectivity of reviews. It also supports summarising minutes of expert panel meetings and drafting initial review opinion documents.

It also honoured officials who contributed to strengthening basic communication rights. The ministry named Koo as a main award recipient and Lee as a secondary recipient for contributing to guaranteeing access to basic communication services such as messaging, search and navigation even after users use up their entire data allowance.

They expanded the data reassurance option (QoS) to all data plans so people can access basic data at any time without additional telecommunications costs. They also pursued policies to strengthen rights to use communications services, including increasing voice and text allowances for older people.

First Vice Minister Koo Hyuk-chae (구혁채) said compensation for civil servants who create results through challenge and innovation becomes a driving force that leads to bigger challenges. He said the ministry would continue working to spread an atmosphere in public service that encourages taking on challenges and producing results.