Defense News

In response to media reports that "the number of cooks was reduced so much that nine military departments almost ran out of food supplies," the Ministry of National Defense (MND) stated today (11^th) that part of the report was inconsistent with the facts, and has clarified the situation as follows:

1. In accordance with the measures based on Article 22 , "Defense Resources Privatization", of the National Defense Act, the MND has reviewed the manpower of food outsourcing for units for diverse agencies, schools, factories, warehouses, and hospitals. Nonetheless, since combat troops, with special consideration, must have the ability to cook for themselves, whether at war or in times of peace, the MND is no longer outsourcing food services for troops.

2. To avoid failure by contractors to fulfill their contract for any reason when we do outsource, there is always an emergency response mechanism in place to ensure the dietary needs of officers and soldiers are met. This is in addition to existing manpower for catering operations.

3. Since the contractor has failed to fulfill the contract in this case, the MND had, on 3 November,  produced a communication and notified their outsourcing operations to terminate on 4 November. The MND implemented the contingency mechanism for catering operations and began supplying breakfast on 5 November. As such, the provision of food supplies continues and there is no need to be alarmed. There has never been a report of such incidents as running out of food supplies or officers living on packed lunches.

 4. The MND will, in the future, take into account factors such as region, the number of units, and total number of meals, and properly process labor procurement in groups to avoid a single contractor from signing up to handle too many outsourcing units, thus helping to reduce the risk of no food being delivered due to a failure on the contractor’s part.