By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

The Ministry of National Defense pledged Wednesday to take steps to overhaul the nation's arms acquisition process.

The move comes on the heels of a series of corruption scandals involving military procurement.

"We should reflect on the shameful scandals surrounding defense equipment acquisition and supply, and related accounting. To prevent similar cases, we'll come up with measures to overhaul the current acquisition system," the ministry said in a news release after a year-end meeting of top military brass.

About 150 military generals and ranking defense officials met at the ministry in Seoul to review defense readiness against North Korea and key policy goals for next year.

Last month, four Navy officers at the Gyeryongdae military compound in South Chungcheong Province were indicted on charges of receiving bribes from local suppliers for influence-peddling.

A string of arms acquisition scandals also marred the military.

In September, Doosan Ifracore was investigated for inflating the costs of engines for the Navy's next-generation patrol "killer" boats.

Two months earlier, prosecutors raided Ilkwang, a medium-sized defense firm, which allegedly tried to secure classified information on programs such as the Korea Utility Helicopter from procurement officials.

The company was accused of creating a slush fund and evading 70 billion won in taxes.

On Tuesday, President Lee Myung-bak indicated that the government would overhaul the current system of defense acquisition.

"There is always the possibility of corruption in arms affairs. So a new mechanism in the acquisition process should be worked out," he said in a weekly Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae. "We need a measure to save on the defense budget but raise the efficiency. That's a direction which will improve the public's trust on national defense."

Ministry sources did not rule out the possibility of a reshuffle of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) by cutting a large number of military officers.

DAPA was launched in 2006 under the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration in an effort to enhance transparency in arms acquisition.

Following the inauguration of the incumbent government early last year, the defense ministry tried in vain to overhaul DAPA and take back key acquisition responsibilities from the agency, but faced resistance from the agency.

"Irregularities regarding defense acquisition mostly come from those in charge of acquisition affairs concerned," a ministry official said. "We'll take measures to help cut bad connections between DAPA and defense firms. To that end, we plan to slash the number of active military officers at the agency."

Currently, about 800 active officers, or 49 percent of the total employees, are working with DAPA. The number could be cut by up to 400, the official said.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr