The issue of foreign “fat cats” at Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) remained the focus of discussion at the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, as lawmakers questioned whether some of the well-paid, senior foreign managers were indeed indispensable to the debt-ridden railway company.
THSRC held a shareholder meeting yesterday at which shareholders asked chairman Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) how he would handle the company’s well-paid executives. Ou said the criticism had hurt foreign employees in the company and that some had tendered their resignations. He said he would try to retain some of them.
Ou did not attend the legislative committee meeting yesterday, leaving company spokesperson Ted Chia (賈先德) to represent the company.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said he was irritated by Ou’s absence, adding that Ou was disregarding the supervision of the legislature.
She then asked Chia what the company would do with two foreign managers whose yearly salary exceeded NT$10 million (US$309,600) each.
Chia said that the contracts for the two, in charge of managing the large build-operate-transfer (BOT) project and handling contract issues, would soon expire, but that Ou was considering renewing their contracts and seeking approval from the board of trustees.
“So none of your Taiwanese employees know English and can read the contracts, and nobody except those two can do the jobs?” Yeh asked.
A similar view was voiced by Chinese Nationalist Party Legislator (KMT) Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who questioned whether the foreign employees were irreplaceable.
In response, Chia said that it was impossible for the company to replace all its foreign employees because the company still needed their technical support in maintaining the high-speed rail system as well as operating the control center.
Transportation and Communications Deputy Minister Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that it was not “ideal” for a company to have irreplaceable employees, but added that the company may have to spend just as much to hire Taiwanese professionals with similar qualifications.
The committee was scheduled to review the budget allocated to the Bureau of High Speed Rail, whose main responsibility is to supervise the operation of the high-speed rail system. Nonetheless, THSRC’s shareholders’ meeting on Tuesday continued to be the focus of the question-and-answer session. Some legislators questioned Ou’s estimate that the company would be able to break even with about 145,000 passengers per day. Still others asked about the consequences if the company failed to secure NT$382 billion in bank loans.
Meanwhile, lawmakers inquired about the bureau’s Airport Rail (機場捷運) project, after the railway’s electromechanical system contractor Marubeni Corp recently filed a NT$12.9 billion claim against the bureau.
Bureau of High Speed Rail Director-General Chu Hsu (朱旭) said that Marubeni fell behind schedule in delivering the design of the electromechanical system and that “its claim was not supported by any substantial evidence.”
“It’s the company’s way of forcing negotiations,” Chu said.
The goal of launching the operation of the Airport Rail between Sanchong (三重) and Jhongli (中壢) by 2014 remains unchanged, Chu said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS