Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday announced the latest personnel reshuffle in the wake of the resignation of Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) Commissioner Richard Chen (陳椿亮) over the Taipei Twin Towers project.
Taipei Deputy Secretariat Tsai Hui-sheng (蔡輝昇) is to take Chen’s former post, and in turn, Tsai’s vacancy will be filled by Control Yuan research committee member Hsue Chun-ming (薛春明).
Tsai, 57, has served as the chairman of Taipei Rapid Transit Corp, and is one of Hau’s top aides in the field of traffic and transportation.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The mayor said he believed Tsai would handle the follow-up contract negotiation of the Taipei Twin Towers project well, while overseeing the launch of the MRT Xinyi Line and Songshan Line.
The announcement of the personnel reshuffle came one day after Hau accepted Chen’s resignation on Monday.
Chen tendered his resignation on Sunday over the failure of a consortium that won the bid for the NT$80 billion (US$2.7 billion) project in October last year to deposit the required performance bond of NT$1.89 billion by the deadline on Thursday last week.
Hau, who has defended the city government’s handling of the bidding process, yesterday blamed the department for failing to publicize the financial situation of the consortium when learning about its financial difficulties a month ago, and promised to make the contract negotiation process with the second-priority bidder more open and transparent.
“If the department had made public related information immediately, the city government’s reputation would not suffer such big damage … We will look into the consortium’s legal responsibility if they are proven to be practicing deception,” he said yesterday.
He dismissed calls for the resignation of other related department heads, including Taipei City’s Finance Department Commissioner Chiu Da-chan (邱大展), and said no more department heads would step down over the project.
Other changes included the resignation of Taipei City Department of Transportation Commissioner Jason Lin (林志盈) due to personal reasons.
Taipei City’s Public Transportation Office Director Wang Sheng-wei (王聲威) is set to take over as the department head.
Fire Department Commissioner Hsiao Ying-wen (蕭英文) and the Department of Land Commissioner Chen Hsi-chen (陳錫禎) have also resigned over health conditions.
Their posts will be filled by Hsinchu City Fire Department chief Liao Mao-wei (廖茂為) and Taipei Deputy Secretariat Huang Rong-fen (黃榮豐) respectively.
As for the post of Taipei deputy mayor left vacant by Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁), Hau said he would announce the new deputy mayor in April, declining to comment on whether former Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman Sean Lien (連勝文) would take the post.
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