Bus-purchase scandal steers directly into Taipei City

The Taipei City Government yesterday agreed to release within three days a list of officials to be punished in connection with a scandal over the purchase of 140 buses ordered in 2000.

Chen Wu-cheng (陳武正), director of the city's Bureau of Transportation (BOT), announced the move in response to a demand by Taipei City Councilor Alex Fei (費鴻泰).

Taipei City councilors had accused the city government of covering up errors made in the procurement, after the buses' manufacturer changed the design of some and installed unauthorized emergency exits, allegedly without the knowledge of the BOT.

Fei raised the issue of the purchase in the city council Tuesday, saying that the city's BOT made "an obvious error" by covering up "administrative errors" made by the Taipei City Bus Administration when buying the buses.

"The BOT investigated the case and discovered the flaws, but has done nothing more for the past six months," Fei said yesterday.

"The city government should release the list of the government officials to be punished within three days. Any officials who violated the regulations should be prosecuted," Fei said.

The Taipei City Bus Administration, which was responsible for buying the 140 buses at the center of the controversy, allegedly allowed the vehicle manufacturer, Chengta (承達), to modify the original design of the vehicles without the approval of the BOT last August and September.

The BOT, however, has said that it would not accept the buses, while Chengta has demanded that the changes were approved by the bus administration.

Each bus was priced at NT$3.92 million and the budget for the entire order was almost NT$550 million. The buses were scheduled for delivery on Sept. 2 last year. As yet, they have not been delivered.

The Taipei City Council's traffic committee invited officials to report on the current state of the bus purchase Tuesday and Wednesday, after Fei received the government's investigation report and made it public Tuesday.

The city government set up a task force to investigate the case last October. Its report states that the bus administration made "obvious administrative errors" in allowing the manufacturer to modify the original design for some of the buses by designing emergency exits for them. It concludes that the BOT was not informed.

Su Chung-kun (蘇崇昆), director of the bus administration, admitted that his department made administrative mistakes, but he said that it had informed the BOT about the design modification.

Chen Wu-cheng (陳武正), director of the BOT, refused to comment, saying the case remains under investigation.

The city government's Commission of Administrative Appeals is now investigating the case. It will seek to establish whether the bus administration approved the manufacturer's requests legally and whether the BOT was in fact informed.