Print

Mail

wiki links

Audit body to probe arms procurement allegations

The Ministry of Audit will launch an investigation into the reasons behind the vastly different procurement prices paid for firearms by different government departments, Auditor-General Su Chen-ping (蘇振平) said yesterday.

Su made the remarks in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Teh-fu (林德福) at a meeting of the legislature's Budgets and Final Accounts Committee.

"An initial survey conducted by the ministry in March showned that the price differences did exist, and in some cases the price gaps were quite substantial," Su said.

Su added, however, that the ministry needed to find out more details such as differences in exchange rates, equipment and quantities for price comparison.

The survey came after Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) accused officials of making illegal profits from firearms procurement deals.

Liao said the National Police Agency paid NT$98,618 (US$2,961) for a HK MP5, a German-made submachine gun, three times as much as the Navy did.

The National Security Bureau in 2002 spent NT$210,000 buying the SWA-5, another type of submachine gun, which was about NT$100,000 higher than SWA-5s bought by the Army's Aviation and Special Forces Command in 2004, Liao told the committee.

"The two prices were much higher than the market price for the SWA-5 I found on the Internet, which was NT$43,560 per gun," Liao added.

The same problem occurred during the procurement of Austrian Glock 9mm pistols, Liao said, adding that a pistol, regardless of its manufacturer, usually sold for less than NT$20,000, but the bureau and the agency both spent NT$28,000 when buying Glock 9mm pistols.

"The headquarters of Glock once sent a letter to bureau Director Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐) asking why the price was so high, but Shi refused to respond citing confidentiality," Liao said, without providing evidence.
This story has been viewed 1329 times.