Arms acquisition rotten to the core
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By Park Yoon-bae
Deputy managing editor
I attended a luncheon meeting hosted by the chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) a few years ago when I was an editorial writer.
During the meeting, a DAPA official briefed journalists on the role of the administration, saying it had carried out an important mission of modernizing the nation’s weapons system to enhance its military preparedness.
I agreed with him that the government agency had contributed to ensuring Korea’s watertight defense and security.
But what made me uneasy and even angry was his complaint about news reports of military procurement scandals. He said such reports hampered the agency’s efforts to export Korean-made weapons and military equipment.
He went so far as to urge the mass media to refrain from publishing critical reports that he claimed could have a negative effect on arms sales negotiations with other governments around the world, especially in developing countries.
I got the impression that the official was trying to pass the buck on to the media for a potential breakdown of some deals. Furthermore, his apparent grudge against the media led me to wonder if all was well at the procurement agency.
I think the DAPA and the official should have embraced the media’s criticism and taken bold measures to prevent the recurrence of such scandals.
Now the agency is under mounting criticism for rampant corruption involving many arms procurement projects. In fact, corruption has become too deeply entrenched in the military and defense sector to be rooted out in a short time.
During a recent parliamentary audit and inspection of the DAPA, lawmakers detected 47 suspected cases of corruption involving 31 projects. Government officials and investigators confirmed 25 of these cases.
One of the most shocking and serious cases is a Navy ship project. Right after North Korea’s sinking of the South’s warship Cheonan near the West Sea border that killed 46 sailors in March 2010, the DAPA pushed for the 3,500-ton Tongyeong _ the first Korean-made rescue-and-salvage ship _ to be built.
The vessel, costing 160 billion won, was launched in September 2012. But it could not take part in the rescue operation for the Sewol ferry that sank last April, because the naval ship had problems with its sonar system.
No doubt corruption was the direct cause of the malfunctioning sonar system. Early this month, a former Navy officer with the DAPA was indicted on charges of forging a document for the selection of the system. He is suspected of fabricating performance evaluations in a scheme to choose an American contractor.
Then the U.S. company sold the sonar for 4.1 billion won, more than 20 times its market price of 200 million won. What is more worrisome is that the sonar was an outdated model developed in the 1970s. Without corruption, such a deal could not have been possible for a state-of-the-art rescue-and-salvage vessel.
According to a prosecution investigation, a retired Navy captain, who worked as an arms lobbyist for the company, allegedly bribed DAPA officials into buying the outdated and substandard sonar at the inflated price. This means that the corrupt and greedy officials fattened their own pockets while possibly harming national defense and security.
The sonar case is seen as only the tip of the iceberg. Corruption and other irregularities have also permeated projects for body armor, K-2 tanks, K-11 assault rifles, high-speed patrol boats and engine starters for jet fighters. No one can rule out the possibility that almost all weapons and defense equipment procured have involved bribes, rebates and other favors in the corruption food chain.
At the center is the network of “gunfia,” a combination of gun (military) and mafia. This network is composed of active officers and retired officers who work as lobbyists for defense contractors.
President Park Geun-hye has vowed to fight the “gunfia” as part of her drive to eliminate corruption. On Tuesday, she appointed Chang Myojng-jin, 62, a researcher at the Agency for Defense Development, as the head of the DAPA. Chang is the first civilian without a military or bureaucratic career to lead the arms acquisition agency.
His appointment raises expectations that he will lead the reform of the corruption-ridden military procurement system. His first job is to break the corrupt ties between DAPA officials and defense contractors. Then he should make all-out efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in the acquisition process.