Minister of National Defense Tang Fei (
"What I understand now is that no personnel with the defense ministry were involved in the alleged kickback scandal. But [due to new evidence surfacing recently], an investigation committee of the ministry will intensify its probe into the case," Tang said.
The comments represented the first time that Tang has admitted that large bribes could have been involved in the Lafayette deal.
Previously, Tang has consistently said the defense ministry could not find any records referring to the alleged kickbacks.
"Arms purchase scandals are likely to happen, as [Taiwan] cannot acquire the weapons we want through official channels, and as some middlemen can give us a helping hand in such matters," Tang said.
"What we are doing now is to get more information from French authorities through both official and unofficial channels about the alleged scandal. We will give an answer to the public," he said.
Tang made the remarks during a television call-in show, as part of his answer to questions over new evidence showing Dumas, the former French foreign minister and constitutional court head, was linked to the money.
Dumas said in a recent interview with a French magazine that the alleged kickbacks from the Lafayette deal were actually as high as US$760 million, rather than the earlier speculated figure of US$500 million.
Taiwan bought a total of six Lafayette frigates from France in a US$2.3 billion deal in 1992, while Dumas was France's foreign minister.
If the kickbacks were as high as Dumas alleged, Taiwan could have bought two extra Lafayettes with the money.
The scandal has been linked to the murder of Navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (
It was also rumored that the kickback money was split among influential people in France, China and Taiwan, all of whom contributed to the signing of the Lafayette deal.
"We have learned some bitter lessons from the past. We have now made a lot of improvements through the strengthening of personnel management and consolidation of the legal system," Tang said.
For example, Tang said, if the military wants to buy non-specialized equipment it will simply put the sale out for bidding on the on-line auctioneer's Web site.
"But we still have difficulty in acquiring weapons which we are in urgent need of. To overcome such difficulties, we may have to employ certain people to lobby for us, using their own methods," Tang said.
"I want the public to think about whether Taiwan should acquire badly needed weapons by paying extra money to the mediators, who charge for such services according to the established international rules of the game," he said.
Tang's remarks also reflected a dilemma faced by Taiwan's military leadership over obtaining advanced weapons for the country's defense, with some yielding to the requests of arms brokers and some refusing to be drawn into the high spending this entails, defense officials said.
Taiwan once had the opportunity of buying a diesel-powered submarine from a South American country, but then Chief of the General Staff General Hao Pei-tsun (
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