Public prosecutors have detained dozens of military officials and civilian defense contractors for questioning as part of a massive operation yesterday investigating military corruption in which contractors allegedly provided cheap, inferior components from China that were used to produce CM-32 “Clouded Leopard” armored vehicles.
The operation involved raids that resulted in about 60 people being detained, along with the seizure of documents and other evidence at 37 locations across the nation, including the Ministry of National Defense’s Procurement Office, the Ordnance Readiness Development Center in Nantou County and the ministry’s Armaments Bureau 209th Arsenal, which has its facilities at the ordinance center.
Military officials and supervisors of the ministry’s procurement program allegedly colluded with unqualified contractors over a NT$7.6 billion (US$243.9 million) tender package in 2012 to provide chassis and power equipment for the CM-32 vehicles, which were developed by the ordinance center, the military’s main production and maintenance facility for tanks and armored personnel carriers.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The scandal has been reported as a breach of national security and unauthorized disclosure of classified military material, as contractors allegedly employed Chinese workers and had Chinese subcontractors producing parts in the project’s supply chain.
Top executives, managers and accountants of contractors were summoned for questioning by prosecutors, including from Chung Hsin Electric and Machinery Manufacturing Corp (CHEM, 中興電工), Yi Rong Technology Co (億嶸科技), Wei Shuan Co (崴軒) and Chi Fu Industry (啟福工業).
CHEM was contracted for the project after a bid NT$4.8 billion, but the company did not manufacture parts and equipment. CHEM subcontracted the manufacturing portion of the project to Yi Rong Technology, Wei Shuan and Chi Fu Industry.
However, prosecutors said the three subcontractors do not have the certification required in the contract.
The contract specified that all manufacturing had to be done domestically by Taiwanese, prohibiting the contractor and its partner companies from employing Chinese workers or workers from other foreign nations, while no materials and parts from China or other foreign countries were to be used, prosecutors said.
Contractors breached the terms of the deal, prosecutors said.
The deals had undermined national security, while there remains suspicion that military officials received kickbacks and other inducements, prosecutors added.
The investigation is focused on whether military officials were “bought off” during the tender procurement process or during the final acceptance and check phase, prosecutors said.
Equipment and parts for the project were delivered in 2012 for assembly and testing at the 209th Arsenal.
The CM-32 vehicles were reported to have numerous problems, including a high rate of defective parts, leading to a judicial probe, which began about a year ago.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS