Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday remained low key about an inconclusive investigation by the city into questionable expenditures for the Xinsheng Overpass reconstruction project, urging the public to wait for the result of a legal inquiry into the controversy.
Hau said his government “put its heart and soul into the probe” and would make public the results once the interviews were concluded.
While Hau had said the city would conclude the investigation in two weeks, the report was issued on Saturday, one week earlier than promised.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Hau said this was made possible because investigators had finished speaking with the 14 city employees believed to have been involved in the matter, while the contractor, Join Engineering Consultants (昭凌工程顧問), had declined to send officials for questioning.
While the report contained very little new findings, the city referred three city employees to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for investigation, as the task force headed by Hau was unable to substantiate their claims.
Preliminary findings announced by the task force last week showed that the contractor shared a large part of the blame for the overcharges, which ran in the millions of dollars, for a beautification project.
The three city officials insist they did nothing wrong and denied the contractor’s claims that they instructed the company to raise the overall budget to facilitate the bidding process.
Dismissing allegations that the three officials were scapegoats, Hau said there would be “no limit” to the probe and that the entire process was open and transparent. With the three officials talking to prosecutors in the investigation, Hau said the truth would soon come out and the public would also understand that the city government did its best to get to the bottom of the matter.
Hau said that as long as he focused on his municipal responsibilities and the flora expo, his popularity would gradually recover.
Hau made the remarks after attending a rally with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for Sinbei City, former vice premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), at KMT headquarters.
The pair said that if elected, they would work together to clean up the Tamsui River and renovate areas along the riverbank. They promised to earmark a five-year, NT$50 billion (US$1.6 billion) budget to turn the Tamsui River basin into “a second Manhattan.”
Yesterday’s event was the third time in as many months that the pair announced the same plan in a joint campaign activity.
Hau, meanwhile, accused his Democratic Progressive Party opponent, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), of being reluctant to clean up the Tamsui River when Su was Taipei County commissioner.
Hau said he once visited Su, asking him to help clean up the river, but Su turned down his proposal without giving a reason.
Hau said he was happy to have worked with outgoing Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) on the matter, adding that water quality in the Tamsui River was the best in 30 years.
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS