A Ministry of National Defense initiative to obtain US-made Harpoon missiles is plagued by cost overruns, poor coordination with contractors and procedural irregularities, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said.
In a report released this month, the center said the ministry made changes to the program without resubmitting a proposal to the Executive Yuan, adding that such incidents “call [the program’s] propriety into question.”
In October last year, the US approved the sale to Taiwan of 100 Harpoon Coastal Defense Systems, a package comprising launch vehicles, 400 missiles and other components.
Screen grab from the US Pacific Fleet’s Facebook page
While the ministry planned to buy the equipment in separate batches from this year to 2025, it on Oct. 19 issued an update to the bid notice, saying that it intended to procure all of the systems, munitions and components in a single purchase, citing the rising military threat from China.
In separate documents submitted to the legislature in May and August, the ministry increased the program’s overall cost estimate from NT$52.3 billion (US$1.88 billion) to NT$86.6 billion, while the end date was moved from 2025 to 2030, it said.
The surge in estimated costs exceeded a 20 percent limit stipulated by regulations and should have triggered an automatic mechanism for the ministry to resubmit the program to the Cabinet, but it did not, it added.
Instead, the ministry gave the program to the Cabinet days before it was to submit the overall budget report, the report said.
Although the ministry claimed an urgent operational need for the missiles, its failure to make any plans to coordinate with defense contractors in Taiwan and the US over the deal could lead to the nation losing out on opportunities to obtain defense technologies, it said.
The center also highlighted the ministry’s failure to meet enlistment goals and added that some combat units are more than 20 percent understaffed while reporting a high ratio of volunteer soldiers who failed to meet standards.
As of August, Taiwan had 162,282 volunteer soldiers, which falls short of the 169,000 goal for the volunteer component of the military, the center said.
Since 2016, 2,588 troops were discharged from military service for failing to meet standards, which is 18.36 percent of all men and women who volunteer, it said.
Substantial ministry staff and funding had been consumed in connection to processing troops who were found to be unfit for service and compensating them where payouts are appropriate, it added.
The number of understaffed combat units and the high number of volunteers who left military service after being found to be unfit for service are concerning, it said.
The growth rate of the volunteer force has slowed annually from 5.88 percent in 2018 to 1.09 percent in the first eight months of this year, the report said.
The lukewarm growth of the all-volunteer military suggests that the government’s incentive package to encourage enlistment of career soldiers might not be working, it added.
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
RSS