The national audit agency on Wednesday asked the defense ministry to take punitive action against the Navy chief over a faulty Navy salvage ship with an out-of-date sonar system that was unable to go to the rescue when a deadly ferry accident took place earlier this year.
   
The Board of Audit and Inspection approved the decision on Adm. Hwang Ki-chul in an audit committee and conveyed it to the defense ministry earlier in the day, the agency noted. The non-binding decision calls for punitive personnel action against Hwang.
   
The decision comes after the audit agency's findings that Hwang was responsible for the military project to construct the first South Korean-built salvage ship Tongyeong.
  
A top defense ministry official said the ministry will carefully review the request by the audit agency, though it accepts the audit results. The official asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity.
  

Hwang was not immediately reached for comment.
  
The military completed the construction of the Tongyeong with local shipbuilder Daweoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in 2012, but the ship was found unfit for deployment due to its shoddy sonar equipment. 
   
The agency said Hwang, then the chief of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's vessel project division while the project was under way in 2009, neglected his duty in deciding to purchase outdated sonar for the salvage ship project.
  
The audit agency launched its probe into the ship project earlier this year following the deadly sinking of the ferry Sewol off the southwest coast in April, which killed more than 300 people.
   
The military could not deploy the salvage ship for the rescue operation in the aftermath of the ferry accident due to the sonar problem. 
   
The military said it will take more than a year before the ship can be deployed on actual missions. (Yonhap)