The Changhua District Court yesterday turned down prosecutors’ request to detain a Changhua County Government official suspected of involvement in graft.
Changhua County Government official Chen Hsueh-li (陳雪莉), who formerly served as the director of the county’s environmental protection bureau, was instead released on bail of NT$300,000.
Investigators on Tuesday searched the county government’s offices, as well as the offices of the environmental protection bureau and some contractors.
Prosecutors said that they suspect Chen was involved in at least four questionable tenders during her tenure as the bureau chief, such as a procurement project for facilities to test the county’s underground water.
Chen allegedly received NT$3 million (US$101,567) in bribes in exchange for leaking names of evaluation committee members to a contractor surnamed Cheng (鄭), and for helping him win bids, prosecutors said.
Cheng was released on NT$200,000 bail.
This case marks the latest in a series of graft investigations against the county government.
The allegations of corruption have seriously damaged the local government’s reputation, with Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accused by a local businessman of demanding kickbacks in a golf club development project, while Cho’s younger brother, Cho Po-chung (卓伯仲), is suspected of manipulating several tenders, including those for souvenir bags, ceramics and calendars which Cho Po-yuan distributed to supporters in the county, and for also allegedly receiving kickbacks from a contractor.
Cho Po-chung has been detained by the district court, while sources said that Cho Po-yuan is likely to be summoned for questioning by prosecutors after they have finished strengthening their case against him.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
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