Former section chief under the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of Culture) Liu Yung-yi (劉永逸) may have used his position to rig bids on multiple cultural projects, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday.
Tsai’s allegations refer to an accusation fellow DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) made on Tuesday last week that Liu and some companies may have rigged the bid on the Greater Taichung Cultural Creative Park and other projects in the No. 20 Warehouse, both of which report to the ministry.
Cheng said that some of the companies shared addresses or phone numbers, adding that one company, the Taiwan International Culture and Creative Foundation, had registered Liu as its executive officer and the contact person was Luo Yung-kui (羅永貴), who was also the manager of Roger Moore Culture and Creative, adding that Liu also doubled as a Taiwan Culture and Creative Development Platform Foundation board member.
Cheng said that all three companies had participated in the bid for projects in the park and the No. 20 Warehouse.
Tsai yesterday said that Liu’s instructing professor Pan Fan (潘?), as well as National Palace Museum chief secretary Chen Huang-hsin (陳煌信), were board members of the foundation.
That the foundation is using current — and retired — officials, and academics as board members and bidding on projects from the ministry and the Council of Indigenous Peoples, is the same way Flavor Full Food Inc operates, Tsai said.
Flavor Full Food Inc, a local sesame oil producer, and Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co were implicated in the recent adulterated edible oil scandal.
The companies had added cottonseed oil — said to cause infertility in men — to products and allegedly also used the illegal additive copper complex chlorophyllin.
Tsai asked that the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan and the Agency Against Corruption look into the case to discover if there was any wrongdoing, adding that he hoped the investigation would serve to stanch the flow of national subsidies planned for the development of culture and creativity into the pockets of bid riggers.
Tsai said that although on the surface the companies had different names, the registered addresses, phone numbers and contact people were the same.
“Does the Ministry of Culture truly not know? Or is it because they know that these are the king’s men, so they dare not look into the matter?” Tsai said.
Tsai’s comment about “the king’s men” refers to Liu’s connection to Stanley Wang (王壽來), former director of the ministry’s bureau of cultural heritage, who was a member of Liu’s oral defense panel and attended high school with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Wang was impeached by the Control Yuan for his role in the Jingmei Human Rights Culture Park art scandal in 2010. The park was set up on the site of a prison for political and military criminals to be used for a public art exhibit commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident.
The prison is most well-known for having been where former head of military intelligence Wang Hsi-ling (汪希苓) was held after his involvement in the Jiangnan case.
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