Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday raided the Chiayi County Government and several universities as part of an investigation into an environmental protection proposal.
Thirteen Kaohsiung prosecutors led 250 agents from the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) in raids targeting the county government and several departments and institutes at National Taiwan University, National Sun Yat-sen University, National Kaohsiung First University and several other universities.
Investigators seized a number of documents and computers during their search.
Prosecutors said they suspected environmental protection officials from the county government had leaked confidential information, including price details, to a local contractor before a public bid for an environmental protection project.
County government officials were also suspected of allowing the contractor to appoint several members in an influential environmental evaluation committee that was responsible for reviewing the case, after the contractor had won the bid, prosecutors said.
The contractor was suspected of paying bribes to county government officials and members of the committee. Because many of the members were professors, the universities where they are employed were also raided, prosecutors added.
This was the second raid targeting the Chiayi County Government by different prosecutory authorities yesterday.
The university departments and institutes raided include National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University’s Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering and National Kaohsiung First University’s Department of Safety Health and Environmental Engineering.
The Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office raided the country government and summoned county commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for questioning.
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