The coast guard is experiencing a staffing crisis, with understrength crews serving on 90 percent of ships, the National Audit Office said in a report on the budget for last fiscal year published on Tuesday.
The Executive Yuan has instituted various policies to enlarge the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) size in response to China’s aggressive use of “gray zone” tactics in the seas around Taiwan, it said.
These efforts were unable to bridge the gap between the CGA’s operational requirements and the number of personnel available to perform its missions, the office said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The Executive Yuan planned to increase the number of coast guard personnel from 2022 through next year, but the service reported a net loss of 159 people in 2022 and 60 in 2023, the office said.
Last year, the CGA reported a net gain of 60 service members, yet the number fell short of that year’s staffing target by 111 people, it said.
The CGA reported the largest shortage in personnel directly involved in conducting the service’s operations, which has worsened from being short by 47 in 2020 to being short by 867 people last year.
Understaffing in coastal patrol teams increased from 47 in 2020 to a shortage of 534 last year, the office said.
Last year, only 12 coast guard ships were fully crewed, while the remaining 103 ships were understrength, including four vessels that failed to meet the minimum crew size required to conduct operations, it said.
A CGA spokesperson said it is tapping into pools of potential recruits, and boosting recruitment and retention by increasing perks and benefits for coast guard personnel.
For example, the agency is mulling plans to recruit from the Central Police University, Taiwan Police College and people who have obtained certificates for police work via civil service exams, the spokesperson said.
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