National Science Council officials yesterday countered accusations of suspected irregularities regarding a NT$8.05 billion (US$252 million) contract awarded to a bidder to reduce train vibrations.
The accusations were made two years ago by another bidder who had lost the contract to the Sheus Technologies Corp (also known as Hung Hua Engineering), the company in charge of the construction project at the southern Taiwan science park.
Council Deputy Minister Shieh Ching-jyh (謝清志) reiterated that he believed the council's staff members had acted in accordance with the law and relevant rules throughout the bidding process three or four years ago.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
During questioning at a session of the Sci-Tech and Information Committee at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Jih-chu (
The vibration project aimed to reduce vibrations in the science park caused by the high speed railway, which will pass through the park, as high-tech companies such as chip manufacturing plants are sensitive to vibrations above 48 decibels.
Lee said that bidding documents indicated that reducing vibrations to 48 decibels was the goal, and that Sheus' proposal had not fulfilled the requirement.
In response, Shieh said the vibration reduction project was classified as a "unique project" and according to the Government Procurement Law (
Although Sheus had said that it could not fulfill the 48 decibel requirement at the time, recent test-runs indicated that the goal had been reached in certain areas along the railway, Shieh said.
Also, in the contract, the reduction goal had been set higher than 48 decibels, so Sheus had met the requirement, Shieh said.
Lee also said that according to the procurement law, companies participating in the tender process needed to have capitalization of one-tenth the contract amount.
Sheus won the bid for the NT$8.05 billion contract, but the company's capitalization was in fact only NT$2.6 million, falling below the one-tenth limit, Lee said.
Chen Chun-wei (
The council can choose to use different qualification standards and not necessarily that one, Chen said.
Legislators also slammed the council for spending NT$8.01 billion on the project when construction material prices were much lower than what the council had estimated. They did not elaborate.
Shieh said the council's evaluation committee had chosen Sheus' plan because it was creative and innovative, and had pledged to lower decibel levels further than other proposals.
As for accusations from the lawmakers that the council's evaluation committee had been chosen according to their personal relationships with Shieh and the company Sheus, Shieh said that committee members had been selected at random.
"The vibration problem is solved," Shieh said. "Our goal has been reached so there shouldn't be any other problems."
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