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Missing rail officials spark fury

Yesterday, lawmakers serving on the legislative Transportion Committee were supposed to attend a Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) meeting on transportation during the Tomb-Sweeping holiday. But when the focus of yesterday's question-and-answer session only focused on problems with the high speed rail, legislators were particularly upset that the board members representing the government at the Taiwan High Speed Rail Co were not there.

The three board members were Taiwan Sugar Corp chairman Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲), the Executive Yuan's Development Fund chairman Lin Feng-sheng (林豐盛) and the Aviation Development Fund representative Ringo Chao (趙國帥).

Bureau of High Speed Rail director general Pang Chia-hua (龐家驊) said yesterday that the bureau had invited all the board members to participate in the meeting yesterday, but they all had said they would not be able to attend.

People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) asked the bureau to turn in a copy of the board meeting attendance records of these representatives, adding that the public had the right to know if they actually participated.

Lee was extremely displeased about the absence of the members.

"The Bureau of High Speed Rail cannot discipline the Taiwan High Speed Rail Co, you [the bureau] have no authority over these board members as well, do you?" Lee asked Pang.

"Yes," Pang said.

"This is the problem. They don't come, and we don't know if they were compensated by the MOTC for their attendance and if they actually speak on behalf of the public," Lee added.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Yu-ting (王昱婷) asked MOTC Vice Minister Oliver Yu (游芳來) to find out why these board members declined to come. She also suggested that a special session on the high speed rail be held another time, where the MOTC minister must personally answer lawmakers questions.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-ching (葉宜津) also said that the government should consider replacing these members if they were found to not faithfully execute overseeing the operation of the high speed rail.

"We invited them to come and they simply ignored us," Yeh said, "I feel that the more than NT$100 billion we spent on the high speed rail construction has gone down the drain."
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