Final reports on five controversial city development projects were issued yesterday by Taipei’s Clean Government Committee, which declined to accuse former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of wrongdoing.
“The interim administrative investigation into the five cases has concluded,” Deputy Taipei Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) said. “Where necessary, portions will be referred to judicial authorities for continued investigation.”
The city committee was revamped by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in January to investigate controversial development projects contracted out under previous city administrations.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Cases investigated included the Taipei Dome, Taipei Twin Towers, Taipei New Horizon, Syntrend Creative Park and MeHAS City development projects.
The committee recommended that the Taipei New Horizon and Syntrend Creative Park cases “as a whole” be referred to the Control Yuan for further investigation, while reserving judgement on the responsibility of Hau and other city officials.
Taipei Secretary-General Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊) said the committee’s investigation into Taipei New Horizon’s tender had revealed questions about the city’s call for bids.
“We discovered many unreasonable points in the process under which tender terms were revised that caused the interests of the city to suffer,” Su said. “However, exactly who was responsible is not something that our executive investigation can determine.”
She cited cuts to usage royalties paired with increases in the rental area allowed, along with progressive cuts to the proportion of the building required to be devoted to promoting cultural and creative industries — the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project’s mission.
Both decisions were made directly by the city government without consulting the review committee responsible for setting bid terms, she said.
Teng said that the case would be sent to Control Yuan “as a whole,” denying that the committee’s meeting had discussed Hau’s responsibility.
Committee member and lawyer Kao Tsung-liang (高宗良) said it was impossible to prove that Hau had made the controversial decisions, because he had not personally stamped the relevant official documents, which had been stamped by then-deputy mayor Lin Chung-yih (林崇一) in his stead.
He added that former Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) — whose department was responsible for the BOT bidding process — had “lied” in a written statement submitted to the committee stating that Lin had held a cross-departmental meeting on reducing site royalty requirements. Neither the Department of Cultural Affairs nor the Department of Government Ethics had been able to find any record of such a meeting, while former officials interviewed by the committee also had no recollection of one, he said.
Because the decision to switch bidding terms was made prior to bid’s closure, there was no evidence of an inappropriate relationship between Lin and bidding firms that could serve as a basis for accusations of “illegal profiteering,” adding that there was still a possibility of meetings or other contacts.
Teng said that the committee’s investigation had revealed similar problems with the bidding process for the Syntrend Creative Park project, questioning the upper limit on site royalties included in the city’s call for bids, as well as the city government’s decision to treat the project as a BOT case rather than directly leasing out the land.
The case is to be referred to the Control Yuan after former finance commissioner Lee Sush-der (李述德) and other officials have the opportunity to respond to the committee’s findings.
Meanwhile, the committee recommended that the Taipei Dome and MeHAS City cases be referred to the Ministry of Justice for further investigation.
On the Taipei Dome, following discussion of Lee Sush-der’s formal response to committee accusations, the committee recommended that he be formally reported to the ministry, with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) included as someone relevant to the case. The recommendation represented the case’s only progress, with no accusations against Hau for his role in overseeing the project.
The committee moved to respect the existing judicial investigation into the Taipei Twin Towers case, saying that it found no evidence of wrongdoing by other city officials.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique