Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Shih-cheng (王世堅) yesterday continued his attack on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Hau Lung-bin (
Wang told a press conference that Hau abused his authority as EPA minister in deciding a bid for construction of an incinerator in Ilan County in 2002.
illegal
Wang showed a document issued by the Cabinet's Public Construct-ion Committee to Hau in January and February 2002, in which the committee informed Hau that awarding the bid to Mitsubishi would be illegal, as the government had banned doing business with the Japanese company for a year because of an ongoing dispute with the state-run Chinese Petroleum Co.
Wang added that the committee told Hau that allowing Mitsubishi to construct the project would be illegal unless the EPA could provide proof that it could not any other qualified supplier for the project.
Although there were more than 20 big, legitimate and experienced companies that bid for the project, Hau arbitrarily decided in favor of Mitsubishi, Wang said.
"As a government official ... you should defend public interests," Wang said.
hasty decision
Wang further charged that Hau made a hasty decision in cooperating with Mitsubishi, although government chiefs enjoy a 30-day period to review or reconsider a bid according to the Government Procurement Act (
Hau obviously violated public interests in awarding the project to Mitsubishi at a cost of "NT$2.28 billion (US$68.3 million)," which is higher than the government's base price of "NT$2.1 billion," Wang said.
Based on the bidding record provided by Central Trust of China, the government's base price was about NT$2.17 billion, about NT$100 million lower than Mitsubishi's bid price.
Wang said he would sue Hau for malfeasance and corruption next Monday if Hau did not issue a public apology by then.
In response, Hau's campaign office said later yesterday that the Taipei mayoral candidate has left the issue to his lawyer, adding that everything Hau did during the bid was done in accordance with the law.
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