DPP continues attack on Hau Lung-bin

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday raised a volley of questions about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin's (郝龍斌) integrity, saying that Hau's inability to answer the questions proved his incompetence to run the local government.

DPP Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅) said that Hau had rigged a public bid for an incinerator-building project in 2002 when he was head of the Environment Protection Administration (EPA).

"The EPA should have rejected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd's bid as the government had vowed not to do business with the firm for a year because of a dispute [between Mitsubishi and Chinese Petroleum Co]," Wang said.

Meanwhile, DPP legislators Hsu Huo-yun (徐國勇) and Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) called a press conference accusing Hau and his wife of lying to dodge allegations that Hau's utility bills had been paid with government money.

Hau's wife had said the day before that her family lived at 317 Fulin Road -- next to her father-in-law Hau Pei-tsun's (郝柏村) residence at 315 Fulin Road. But DPP lawmakers said yesterday that Hau's wife had told the school at which she works that she lives at No. 315. The lawmakers added that the water bill for No. 317 averages NT$200, while that for No. 315 was often about 10 times higher, proving that Hau Lung-bin's family had been living at No. 315.

Hau Lung-bin's lawyer Su Ying-kuei (蘇盈貴) argued yesterday that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries had won the incinerator bid fairly, and that Hau had not favored the contractor.

Su said the original contractor, Da Ying Co, had terminated its contract with the EPA in 2000 because of financial difficulties. The next three bids in 2001 had failed as only one company had participated, Su said.

Although Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was one of the companies boycotted for one year by the Public Construction Committee, Su said that Hau had cited Article 103 of the Government Procurement Law (政府採購法) and requested the committee allow the company to participate in the fourth bid because of the urgency of the project.

The committee later agreed to allow the company to participate, and Mitsubishi won with a bid of NT$2.2 billion (US$66 million), which had saved the government about NT$50 million, Su said.

Hau, meanwhile, urged DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to focus on the real issues, rather than harassing his family and neighbors.

Hsieh in turn denied that he had ever asked Taiwan Solidarity Union Taipei mayoral candidate Clara Chou (周玉蔻) to drop out of the race. Hsieh also denied Chou's claim that former Government Information Office head Pasuya Yao (姚文智) had conveyed the message on his behalf.