Nantou County prosecutors yesterday indicted Nantou County Commissioner Lee Chao-ching (李朝卿), a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), on corruption and other charges, saying Lee is suspected of involvement in as many as 117 bribery cases.
The Nantou District Prosecutors’ Office said Lee was suspected of receiving kickbacks from almost every bid for a county government project since coming to office in 2008.
Lee, who has been detained since Nov. 30 last year, is alleged to have received kickbacks of between 10 percent and 15 percent of project fees from contractors. Prosecutors say Lee took more than NT$31.7 million (US$1.06 million) in bribes, and part of the money was distributed to county government officials.
Photo: Hsieh Chieh-yu, Taipei Times
Prosecutors said Lee received dirty money in a total of 117 cases, and added that he was charged with corruption and violation of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法).
Prosecutors said Lee denied that he was corrupt, arguing that his subordinates had been in charge of the deals and that he did not know anything about them.
Prosecutors suspect that Lee and other county government officials received kickbacks from contractors who had won bids for public projects such as construction, tourism or agriculture and on projects to repair roads damaged by typhoons and floods. The actions of Lee and his government have seriously damaged the county and its people, prosecutors said.
Sixteen other people were indicted alongside Lee yesterday, including Nantou County Government Public Works Department director Huang Jung-te (黃榮德), Lee’s secretary Chang Chih-yi (張誌誼), Lee’s brother-in-law Chien Jui-chi (簡瑞祺) and contractor Wu Chung-chi (吳仲琪).
Prosecutors said they suspect the county government had divided public projects into smaller ones, each with a budget of NT$1 million, so that it could assign contractors without inviting public tenders as required by the Government Procurement Act.
Prosecutors said suspicions had grown that Chien was acting as a broker between Lee and the contractors.
The district court decided to release Lee on bail of NT$20 million, while Chien was released on NT$10 million. Both have been barred from leaving the country.
On Nov. 29 last year, prosecutors searched Lee’s office and several other locations and seized NT$300,000 in cash found in tea cans in Lee’s office and more than NT$1 million in cash from Huang’s house.
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
More than 8,000 people took part in a rally in Taipei yesterday to express support for more defense spending, after the opposition slashed the Cabinet’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.6 billion) special defense budget and capped it at NT$780 billion. The demonstrators urged the Cabinet to propose another bill. Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said the main problem of the passed budget plan is the removal of funding for critical items, not just that the total amount is smaller. Critical budget items included purchasing or developing uncrewed vehicles, Strong Bow (強弓) missile systems, additional ammunition, artificial intelligence-powered combat systems and Taiwan-US
RSS