No concrete conclusions were reached as the Taipei City Government yesterday concluded an investigation into problematic purchase plans for the Xinsheng Overpass reconstruction project one week ahead of schedule, leaving unanswered many questions about how the budget was used and possible illegal actions by civil servants.
In a press conference yesterday afternoon, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the task force, which he formed last week, found that the project’s bidding process was problematic, and that officials in the New Construction Department could be responsible for the overpriced purchase plans.
However, because the task force only has administrative investigation rights, it could not force the contractor, Join Engineering Consultants, to come in for questioning, which left it unable to proceed further with the investigation.
“We are unable to clarify some questions and doubts because of the limited administrative investigation rights, and therefore we have forwarded all evidence and related information to prosecutors for further investigation,” Hau told the press conference at Taipei City Hall.
The investigation report repeated most of the preliminary findings the task force announced last week, accusing the contractor again of failing to go through a price comparison procedure before making purchase plans.
The report said the contractor over-billed the city government in 120 purchase plans for the project, which has an overall budget of NT$1.3 billion (US$40.8 million). In one case, the company billed the city government more than NT$425 for each bulb of an evergreen vine that normally costs about NT$100.
The task force also questioned officials involved in the project, including former commissioner of the New Construction Department Huang Hsi-hsung (黃錫薰), former chief engineer of the department Chang Li-yen (章立言) and former section chief Chen Chih-sheng (陳智盛), about possible negligence in the process and the possibility that bribes were involved.
The three all insisted they had done nothing wrong and denied the contractor’s previous accusations that the department instructed them to raise the overall budget in order to facilitate the bidding process.
Yang Shih-chin (楊石金), head of the city’s Department of Ethics, who is also a member of the task force, said the task force reported the three officials to prosecutors for investigation since it was unable to substantiate their claims.
Yang denied the involvement of any higher-ranking officials in the problematic project, and declined to give more details.
Yesterday’s investigation report came out one week earlier than Hau had promised, but contains very little in new findings. The Hau administration has sought to resolve the dispute surrounding the project, which dates back to earlier this month when several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors began to raise questions about the price of the flowers and plants purchased for the bridge that runs alongside the Taipei International Flora Expo’s main site.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Huang Hsian-chun (黃向群) yesterday accused the city government of failing to offer a clear explanation and shifting all the responsibily to the contractor and three civil servants.
“Apparently the task force is serving as a cover for the city government’s problematic handling of the project, and the three officials are nothing but scapegoats used by Hau’s team to build a firewall against further disputes,” he said.
While failing to answer most of the questions, Hau promised to improve the city government’s budget review mechanism and continue the investigation of other construction projects.
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