There was an outburst of public rage about the government’s failure to deploy the Tongyeong, a state-of-the-art salvage-and-rescue ship, as soon as the Sewol ferry sank off the southwestern coast in mid-April. So the chief of naval operations eventually ordered his staff to deploy the 3,500-ton vessel, but his instruction had to be retracted three hours later because of its insufficient performance. Now, it turns out, there was corruption behind the whole fiasco.
On Thursday, prosecutors took two retired Navy officers into custody on charges of forging documents linked to the 159 billion won defense project. The two, surnamed Oh and Choi, were in charge of selecting suppliers for the ship’s advanced gear when they worked at the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), the government’s defense procurement agency.
The prosecution suspects them of fabricating performance evaluation outcomes in 2009 when the DAPA selected the rescue ship’s hull-mounted sonar so that an American contractor was chosen as the successful bidder. Surprisingly enough, the U.S. company sold the sonar for 4.1 billion won, more than 20 times its market price of 200 million won, and it was an outdated model developed in the 1970s.
The Navy refused to accept delivery of the ship, which was completed in 2012, from its builder, complaining that its equipment did not work properly, and that was why the Tongyeong was not used in the search-and-rescue operation for the Sewol.
The prosecution said an arms lobbyist, a retired Navy captain, was suspected of bribing officials responsible for procuring equipment for the rescue ship, prompting speculation that corruption and irregularities involving arms procurement are rampant, deep-rooted and structural. Most egregious is that it has become all but customary for retired officers to act as lobbyists for arms dealers.
Under the Public Servant’s Ethics Law, retired officers are barred from jobs at defense contractors for two years after being discharged, but more than 95 officers above the rank of colonel have entered these companies over the past five years, meaning that the law has become almost useless.
With the revelation of the latest procurement corruption case, one cannot help but wonder if substandard equipment has been used only for the Tongyeong. It is critical in this regard for law enforcement to widen its probe, setting sights on the DAPA whose corruption and incompetence have been proven through a string of procurement irregularities in recent years.
Given that corruption in arms procurement poses a serious threat to national security and people’s lives, the government ought to leave no stone unturned to uproot corruption in this sector.
Source: http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2014/10/137_165683.html