ROK Admiral Accused of Corruption Due to Outdated Sonar System
|This just goes to show that anyone that had anything remotely to do with what went wrong with the Sewol tragedy is coming under fire:
The state auditor will request the Ministry of National Defense to take disciplinary action against Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Hwang Ki-chul and hold him responsible for a case of defense industry corruption involving a faulty Navy ship, insiders said Tuesday.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) concluded that Hwang was deeply engaged in the process of selecting a supplier of an outdated sonar system for the first domestic-made rescue and salvage ship, the 3,500-ton Tongyeong, in January 2009. At that time he was serving as head of the department in charge of the vessel project at the military procurement agency.
Launched in September 2012, the ship failed to take part in the rescue operation after the Sewol ferry sank in April because of the malfunctioning sonar system. It sparked a huge controversy over deep-rooted corruption in the nation’s defense industry.
According to the BAI, Hwang pushed for a purchase agreement with the supplier even before the Defense Acquisition Program Administration secured the proper evaluation data. He also gave the company preference by postponing the deadline twice for submitting a plan for the project. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link.
U.S. servicemembers shouldn’t be able to use the excuse of “avoid corruption.” Outdated Sonar System, Admirals or not are pretty much scum-bag artists anyway.”
Good thing he didn’t show up with a damn turtle ship!
“…
I was just closing Tbone’s quote…
…though it really doesn’t make whatever point he was getting at more understandable.