Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday dismissed Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors’ allegations that his company willfully dropped out of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) project to leave the way clear for Taiwan Smart Card Co.
The latter is headed by the cousin of a senior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member.
DPP Taipei City councilor Chou Wei-you (周威佑) alleged at a press conference yesterday that Taipei EasyCard did not even enter the bidding process for a TRA project that would allow passengers to travel from Hsinchu to Taipei County’s Rueifang Township (瑞芳) by simply swiping their metro card.
INCONVENIENCE
The TRA has set up card scanning machines from Taipei City to Chungli City (中壢) to save commuters the inconvenience of having to buy a separate train ticket.
The TRA is planning to expand the service for passengers traveling between Hsinchu and Rueifang.
Chou said he suspected that Lien’s company gave up the chance of a potentially profitable deal to accommodate Taiwan Smart Card Company, which is headed by Wu Yun-feng (吳運豐), the cousin of former KMT chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄), as a personal favor while sacrificing the public’s interest.
Lien rejected the allegation, saying the decision was purely a business one after considering an estimated loss of NT$50 million (US$1.54 million) over two years if the company pushed down the costs for the sake of winning the bid.
At a separate setting yesterday, the TRA said three companies expressed an interest in providing its electronic ticketing system, but only Taiwan Smart Card Co passed its qualification review.
It said that the review process is open to public examination.
PRICE
TRA director general Frank Fan (范植谷) said it had yet to close the bid with the Taiwan Smart Card Co because the price the company offered was less than 80 percent of TRA’s base price, which does not fulfill the requirement of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法).
The TRA is still negotiating over the terms of the agreement with the company, he said.
Even if the TRA rules that Taiwan Smart Card Company has won the bid, Fan said the company was obliged to make up the difference as required in the Act.
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