By Jung Sung-ki

Costs for procuring major foreign weapons systems have gone up substantially compared to the original costs in recent years as the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) failed to finalize relevant contracts within scheduled timeframes, a lawmaker claimed Thursday.

According to Rep. Kim Hak-song, a member of the National Assembly’s Defense Committee, the program costs for 15 major weapons systems have seen a 9 trillion won increase over the past decade.

The main reasons for the increase include the rise in prices and exchange rates, as well as frequent delays of planned arms procurement and upgrade efforts, Kim said during a parliamentary inspection of the DAPA.

Such a mismanagement of arms deals has eventually harmed the Assembly’s budget appropriation authority, the legislator argued.

“As for a deal being implemented for several years, if the total costs were rising continuously, that could distort the National Assembly’s authority of budget appropriations. Then related budgets should be reviewed by the Assembly again.”

Major arms procurement programs since 2000 include the production of the K-9 self-propelled howitzer, purchase of U.S. airborne early warning aircraft and fighter jets, and development of guided missiles.

The original costs for those programs were about 19.28 trillion won, but the prices have risen to about 28.1 trillion as of 2011, a 46.1 percent increase, Kim noted.