[Exclusive] Arirang 6 and 7, Perfect Scores Despite 'Geobuki' Development?

Assemblyman Park Wan-joo Spent Only a Quarter of Last Year's Budget but Received a 'Perfect Score'
"Evaluation Method Lacks Practicality and Is Detached from the Field, Improvement Needed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] It has been revealed that the Ministry of Science and ICT gave a perfect score to the development projects of the multipurpose practical satellites (Arirang) 6 and 7, despite the projects not progressing properly, sparking controversy.

According to Park Wan-joo, a member of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Communication Committee (Independent, Cheonan, Chungnam), the Ministry of Science and ICT gave a perfect score in the project achievement evaluation last year, even though the actual budget execution rate for the stalled Arirang 6 and 7 development projects was only 26.6%, due to COVID-19, component defects, and international sanctions against Russia.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has been developing Arirang 6, the successor to Arirang 5 which observes the Korean Peninsula’s land and ocean, and Arirang 7, the successor to Arirang 3, since 2012 and 2016 respectively, with total development budgets of 338.5 billion KRW and 310 billion KRW. Last year, the projects were stalled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, component defects, and the impact of international sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. In fact, the launch of Arirang 6 was postponed three times from the original November 2019 schedule to December this year, as the procurement of the key component, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) transceiver antenna, was delayed by three years. The launch of Arirang 7, initially scheduled for December last year, was postponed twice to December 2023, two years later. Accordingly, only 9.8 billion KRW out of the 36.8 billion KRW budget was executed last year, with the remaining 27 billion KRW (73.4%) carried over.

However, the Ministry of Science and ICT gave a perfect score of 100 points each in three performance indicators, totaling 300 points, in last year’s project evaluation. The project achievement was measured by three evaluation indicators: ▲progress compared to satellite development goals ▲acquisition rate of core satellite development and operation tools (software) ▲participation rate of private companies. All were evaluated based on the ‘ratio of secured cases to target cases.’

Assemblyman Park pointed out, “Among the evaluation indicators, the target and achieved numbers for private company participation were both 17, but the actual number of participating private companies was 29,” adding, “This reversal of subject and object, matching the achieved number to the target number, and the reduction of the actual achieved number are problems caused by an evaluation method that is detached from the research field and lacks practical effectiveness.” He also emphasized, “The development cost for Arirang 6 and 7 is a significant budget of 648.5 billion KRW. It is necessary to improve the existing ambiguous evaluation system to objectively assess the project status and promote the normal progress of the projects.”