Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) was yesterday accused of accepting a NT$3 million (US$92,312) bribe from a company bidding for a Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) project.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wei Ming-ku (
Systex was one of the major shareholders in Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co, which secured the contract for the electronic toll collection (ETC) system. Tsai was indicted by the Taipei District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of using bribery to obtain confidential information from government officials to help Far Eastern win the ETC contract.
Prosecutors' records show that Tsai on June 25, 2004, admitted that he had given NT$3 million to Cho, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), to help secure a contract to sell axle counters to the TRA, Wei said.
"Cho helped me to get around the TRA and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications on the axle counter project three times, the first two times for NT$900,000 each and the third time for NT$1.2 million," Tsai was quoted as saying in the records.
Tsai also disclosed the locations where he had handed the money over to Cho, Wei said.
One of these locations was in front of a convenience store near the Legislative Yuan, and Tsai added that Cho had not given him a receipt, the DPP lawmaker said.
Saying that prosecutors also shot video footage of Tsai handing the bribe to Cho, Wei called on prosecutors to subpoena the commissioner.
Wei revealed the records while questioning Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Su said that this was the first he had heard of Tsai making a confession to prosecutors.
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