The Presidential Office yesterday asked Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to “produce evidence” for comments he made on Saturday that the Taipei Dome project is “ruining the banner of honesty and non-corruption upheld” by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Ko yesterday said evidence would come “soon,” adding that the situation has been handed to the recently formed Taipei Clean Government Committee and would be settled within a month.
During a speech at the Ketagalan Institute on Saturday, Ko said that the Taipei Dome project has ruined Ma’s vow of integrity, with the former Taipei mayor’s municipal administration accused of lining the pockets of Farglory Land Development Co (遠雄建設), the firm responsible for building the facility.
Photo: CNA
Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) yesterday protested Ko’s “arbitrary speculation,” calling on the mayor to prove his words were accurate.
It would be Ko’s credibility that is ruined if the mayor continues to make baseless comments, Chen added.
Chen said Ko’s administration had revealed city government documents selectively, adding that Ko’s credibility has already been damaged by being vague about the “300-million-dollar-man incident” — referring to a campaign donation of NT$300 million (US$9.6 million) by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) during last year’s mayoral campaign — which Chen called on Ko to clarify or risk losing the trust of Taipei residents.
A Presidential Office source said that Ko and the committee have deliberately ignored the fact that after what they called “a secret meeting” [between Farglory and Ma when he was Taipei mayor], the city administration declared the bid failed on Sept. 5, 2005, revoking the collaboration with the company and reopening the bid.
Farglory would never have been put in charge of the construction if the Executive Yuan’s Public Construction Commission during the time the Democratic Progressive Party was in office had not requested that the city government revoke its decision to invalidate the bid, the source said, adding that Farglory had lodged three protests over the matter.
The source said that if the then-Taipei City administration really had “a clandestine agreement” with Farglory, why would have it called for the revocation of the contract signed with the company?
Suspicion that Ma lined the company’s pockets contradicts not only the facts, but also logic, the source added.
In response to media queries over why he said Ma had broken his vow on integrity, Ko yesterday said that he was only “decrypting the data.”
“What I said on Saturday about Ma’s integrity was part of comments made ‘behind closed doors’ and should not be discussed in public,” Ko said, adding that the committee is in charge of the matter now.
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