Moving to an all-volunteer military would put the nation at risk, as volunteer recruitment numbers remain too low to meet operational needs, a Control Yuan subcommittee said.
Low recruitment numbers would result in an insufficient number of officers and an inability to effectively respond to natural disasters, said committee members Tsai Pei-tsun (蔡培村) and Chen Ching-tsai (陳慶財), who were tasked with investigating the issue.
The Executive Yuan and the Ministry of National Defense should look into solutions before ending conscription, they added.
The ministry is implementing measures to enlist new recruits while keeping existing recruits in active duty, spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said, adding that volunteer numbers for this year have met targets.
The government had on Dec. 28, 2011, passed a proposal to transition from a conscription to voluntary force and on Jan. 2, 2012, finalized a transition outline, but the plan has been repeatedly delayed due to poor recruitment numbers.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) announced that the military is to transition to an all-volunteer force next month, at which time 90 percent of those in active service would be volunteers, while the rest would be conscripts completing their service.
Those performing mandatory service in the future would be placed in alternative service posts, such as government offices rather than weapons training, he said.
Meanwhile, the Control Yuan and Executive Yuan have continued to express doubts about the ability to reach recruitment targets in an all-volunteer system.
Volunteer recruitment numbers for weapons training programs fall short every year, the committee said, adding that starting next year, regular training and disaster rescue operations would be affected.
The ministry should implement the volunteer system in stages, it said, adding that it hopes the shortages would not mean that quality is overlooked when selecting officers.
The ministry should look at the root causes for the low recruitment and put more emphasis on improving pay, respecting recruits and offering opportunities for advancement, it added.
It would benefit the ministry to consider the motivations of recruits and look at the channels through which they get information about the military, while also surveying recruits who stay in service to see what motivates them, the committee said.
The collected information could be digitized and made available to potential recruits, it added.
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