He said the interior ministry had added a training dormitory and hot springs hotel to the project when it issued a bulletin announcing approval of the project, thereby allowing contractors to develop those two kinds of buildings in the area.
"It's the ministry's responsibility to ask the Environmental Protection Administration about the construction of those buildings since it added the two items," Lee said.
While the city government is the supervising agency for the entire project, it actually has little authority because 90 percent of the construction sites are within the national park area, Lee said, putting them under the authority of the Yangmingshan National Park Administration.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) stood by his officials yesterday, saying that the scandal had nothing to do with the city government.
The cable-car project was scheduled to be completed next June, but city officials said the corruption probe might delay that timetable.
Additional reporting by Jewel Huang and Jean Lin
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