By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The chief of the country's independent arms procurement agency pledged Thursday that his agency will exclude agents as far as possible in buying foreign weapon systems.
``We'll establish a mechanism to buy foreign weapons directly,'' said Byun Moo-keun, commissioner of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), unveiling measures to further improve the transparency and effectiveness of acquisitions.
The measure is part of efforts to root out corruption in arms procurement, he said.
His remarks came as the presidential office and the Ministry of National Defense are pushing ahead with plans to overhaul the country' defense acquisition system to eradicate irregularities in arms deals.
Last month, Minister of National Defense Kim Tae-young said his ministry would try to reduce the amount of arms bought through roughly 600 arms agents.
Such commercial sales currently account for 65 percent of total purchases, with government-to-government deals making up the rest.
The agents are known to receive about a 3- to 5-percent commission on procurement spending, but industry officials said their actual take is much higher, especially in large deals.
Byun said his agency will come up with regulations related to transparent arms acquisitions. He said agents would not be able to receive more than a 5-percent commission.
The defense ministry is considering taking back some purchasing functions from DAPA, following a series of corruption scandals related to arms procurement.
The ministry, in general, is reviewing two options: either direct ministerial control, or taking back some of the agency's powers.
For the first option, it is considering creating the post of second vice defense minister to handle purchasing, officials said.
Otherwise, an arms acquisitions director would be named at the ministry to better coordinate with the DAPA commissioner, they said.