Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday apologized for the Taipei City Government’s problematic flower purchases and promised to thoroughly review the purchase plans for the Taipei International Flora Exposition and the Xinsheng Overpass within a month.
“I am probably the most upset person over the incident and I need to apologize for the dispute caused by civil servants’ negligence. As Taipei mayor, I must take responsibility for the incident and take the necessary action to meet the expectations of the public,” Hau told a press conference.
Hau announced he would set up a task force comprising experts and officials immediately to find out if any corruption or bribery was involved in the purchase plans for the expo and the overpass.
PHOTO: LIN SU-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
He also announced that he was relieving Bureau of Public Works Acting Commissioner Lo Chun-sheng (羅俊昇) of his post and assigning one of his deputy mayors, Lin Chien-yuan (林建元), to double as acting commissioner. New Construction Department Chief Engineer Chang Li-yen (章立言), who was on Tuesday reprimanded for poor supervision, has also been relieved of his post. The city government will send the case to prosecutors for further investigation.
Hau took what he described as “positive” measures over the incident after the overpriced flower purchase plan for the Xinsheng Overpass beautification project became the center of debate on several political talk shows on Thursday night.
Top officials from his team, including Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) and Taipei City Government Spokesperson Chao Hsin-ping (趙心屏), appeared on the shows to defend the city government’s performance.
However, city officials’ arguments failed to alleviate concern over the incident, which dates back to last week when several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors began to question the price of the flowers and plants purchased for the bridge, which runs alongside the flora expo’s main site.
Six DPP councilors filed a lawsuit against Hau on Thursday, accusing him of negligence after the contractor was found to have charged about 30 times the market price for the flowers.
Hau yesterday refused to comment on whether his move to replace the department’s commissioner would put an end to the dispute, but called on the public to give the city government “a little more time.”
However, Hau’s move failed to impress the DPP.
Earlier yesterday, DPP Taipei City councilors Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) and Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) accused the New Construction Department of paying 12 times the market price for water pipes used in the overpass project. The water pipes normally cost about NT$56 per meter. The department, however, paid NT$704 per meter.
The department also paid several times the market price for another 41 items, the councilors said.
“The NT$1.3 billion Xinsheng Overpass project is full of price differentials and we regret that Hau shifted the responsibility onto civil servants. We demand a full investigation into the allocation of the budget for the project,” Chien said.
The department later said it would send the water pipe purchase plan to the city’s Department of Ethics for further investigation.
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