Navy’s tall ship refit on the rocks
The German navy could lose its last tall ship over claims that its €135 million (NZ$224M) renovation has been stalled by corruption.
The 88m Gorch Fock, launched in 1958, has been used to train more than 14,500 naval cadets.
In January 2016 she was sent to be repaired and modernised at a private shipyard in Elsfleth, 30km up the river Weser from the North Sea port of Bremerhaven. However, the cost has ballooned from an initial €10 million and the completion date has been pushed back by six years to 2025, leading to raids by the authorities on several flats and offices in the region amid suspicions of financial chicanery.
Last week a local television station broadcast images that appeared to show Gorch Fock in only the early stages of reconstruction, even though €80 million of public money has already been spent. Celebrations marking the ship’s 60th birthday, due to take place today, have been abandoned. The German naval academy at Murwik, where the Gorch Fock is usually based, is said to be concerned that by 2025 it may have lost the skills required to operate a tall ship.
Prosecutors suspect that the shipyard and another company involved in the restoration each gave six-figure loans on generous terms to an auditor working in the naval arsenal, Der Spiegel ,a weekly news magazine, reported at the weekend.
The Elsfleth shipyard has not commented on the allegations.
The future of the Gorch Fock will be decided at a meeting in the defence ministry on Friday. One option is to abandon the repairs and simply build a new sail training ship. It is the latest in a series of administrative headaches for the German armed forces, whose struggle with catastrophe-prone logistics and procurement systems has become notorious on the international stage.
Ursula von der Leyen, the defence minister, has been censured by government auditors for spending at least €100 million a year on consultants in her attempt to get a grip on the situation. – The Times