Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday apologized to the public after a long-term aide was detained after being accused of accepting a bribe from a World Games bidder during the latter’s stint as a deputy executive officer for the World Games Kaohsiung Organizing Committee (KOC).
“I feel awful,” Chen said when fielding questions from Kaohsiung City councilors at the city council.
She apologized to the public and added that the officer, Chao Chia-pao (趙嘉寶), had ruined his future.
After summoning Chao and three witnesses for questioning on Wednesday morning, Kaohsiung prosecutors detained Chao on Wednesday night for allegedly accepting a NT$2.5 million (US$77,000) bribe from Dentsu Taiwan (台灣電通) — an advertisement company — for helping fix reviews of the bids for two of the games’ marketing projects.
Chao, who has been an important aide to Chen for a decade and currently serves as a staffer at the city government’s Information Office, was responsible for the projects during his stint as the KOC’s deputy executive officer. The project had a total budget of NT$93 million.
Chao denied the allegations.
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