Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors yesterday accused the Taipei City Government of wasting taxpayers’ money by purchasing “overpriced” plants to turn Taipei into a “garden city.”
The city government will spend NT$70 million (US$2.4 million) over the next four years to plant more than 4,500 trees along 35 major roads as part of Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) plan to build “green boulevards” around the city.
The budget for this year alone is NT$40 million, which will be used to plant 1,256 trees along 10 roads, including Tiding Boulevard and part of Beian Road.
Saying the budget this year was three times higher than the amount available to the Taipei City Parks and Street Lights Office to plant trees around the city last year, DPP Taipei City Councilor Tung Chung-yen (童仲彥) accused the city government of purchasing plants at higher-than-market prices.
“The city government purchased overpriced flowers and plants for the Taipei International Flora Expo, and now it is wasting money on [overpriced] plants for its green boulevard project,” he said.
Showing a copy of a price list from a private gardening company, Tung and DPP Taipei City Councilor Chang Mao-nan (張茂楠) said the price for queen flower trees, for example, was about NT$1,700 per item, but the city government paid NT$3,000 each.
Chang added that more than 70 percent of the roads included in the “green boulevard” project were already planted with trees. He urged the city government to review the project to avoid wasting resources.
Parks and Street Lights Office director Chen Jia-chin (陳嘉欽) said the budget for the project included planting the trees as well as maintenance fees, adding that the prices were based on a reference price list that had been approved by the city council.
Chen acknowledged that 25 of the 35 roads and boulevards included in the project already have trees, but said the city needed to replace old trees with new ones or pay for maintenance.
The city government will finish the bidding process in September and start planting the trees in October. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2014, increasing the total number of roadside trees to 92,912, he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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