Tang Fei ordered probe into Mirage, MND official says

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it was former defense minister and current Premier Tang Fei (唐飛) who ordered probes into allegations suggesting irregularities in the Mirage 2000 fighter plane deal, not current Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明).

"Former defense minister Tang ordered the probes on Nov. 9, last year," said MND spokesman Major General Kung Fan-ding (孔繁定).

"So far, we have not found any concrete evidence to sustain the allegations, and the investigation is still going on.

"The order came from Premier Tang, not from current Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming as said in a local newspaper report," Kung said.

Kung made the statements in response to inquiries from the press over allegations suggested by a news report that months ago General Tang ordered a thorough investigation to find whether Taiwan had spent an extra NT$30 billion in its purchase of 60 Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes from France in 1992.

The Mirage deal, said by the report to be worth around NT$111.6 billion, was signed between Taiwan and France during Tang's term as the air force commander-in-chief, though Tang was new in his office at the time.

The news report said military officials in charge of the deal had expressed doubts about whether to go ahead with the case, but that they were told to proceed on "instruction from higher authorities," a phrase which had been written into documents related to the purchase.

In response to the report, Premier Tang told lawmakers yesterday at the legislature that he had never seen words like "instruction from higher authorities" in documents concerning the deal.

"I will authorize the investigation bureau under the Ministry of Justice to take over the investigation of the case if more evidence is found concerning the alleged irregularities with the deal," Premier Tang said.

He also refuted speculation that he might be among the higher authorities being referred to, saying he was sworn in as the air force chief on Oct.1, 1992 while the Mirage deal was struck in the middle of November of the same year.

Premier Tang's words suggested the deal was approved by his predecessor General Lin Wen-li (林文禮) and other higher-ranking officials and that he just happened to be the person to sign on the contract.

General Lin, who became the director of the Aerospace Industry and Development Center (AIDC) of the military after leaving the air force commander-in-chief post, played a vital role in the development of the domestically-built IDF fighter plane.