Eight employees of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) were fired and its president and chairman disciplined by the Taipei City government over the MRT ticketing scandal.
The eight were among 127 employees involved in the scandal, in which TRTC staff changed configurations on EasyCards to allow themselves free rides on the MRT.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUI, TAIPEI TIMES
The remainder either received demerits or were disciplined, a TRTC spokesperson said at a press conference yesterday.
Of the eight employees fired, one was a station chief, six were deputy station chiefs and one was part of the administrative staff. Another 15 managers were disciplined.
The corporation said it intended to recover the revenue that was lost, tentatively estimated at NT$500,000, by fining employees involved in the scandal 50 times the amount they had saved by taking the free rides.
TRTC chairman Richard Chen (
Because Chen and Tsay are classified as city government civil servants, they were themselves punished yesterday.
"The city government has decided to verbally discipline the TRTC chairman and give the president a demerit," Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"I feel pained about the scandal's negative impact on the public and the MRT's reputation. I apologize to the people of Taipei City," he said.
It was revealed earlier this week that between mid-November and the middle of last month, at least 127 TRTC employees had been entering MRT stations with their EasyCards as normal, but then changing card configurations during their shifts so that they would not have credit deducted when they left stations.
The TRTC believes the practice has been occurring for a much longer period than this, however, and is continuing its investigation.
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