BES Engineering Corp yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of corruption, claiming its bid for the Taipei Twin Towers (台北雙子星) project is being forced out to make way for contractors the mayor favors.
The Taipei Twin Towers is a major construction project intended to service the future Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT line, connecting it to Taipei’s other train and MRT lines.
The project has been plagued with controversy after the initial contractor, Taipei Gateway International Development Co, was implicated in a series of corruption scandals. BES Engineering was designated as the project’s winning bidder after Taipei Gateway withdrew in November last year.
On Monday, the firm accused the government of setting impossible contract-signing conditions.
In an open letter to Hau yesterday, BES board chairman Shen Ching-ching (沈慶京) called on the city government to sign a contract with the firm “in accordance with the reasonable, legally acceptable terms for contract approval laid out in the investor brochure [during the bidding process].”
If the city refuses to sign such a contract, the firm would be forced to believe that the mayor is pushing out the firm to make way for personally favored bidders, he said, threatening legal action against the mayor.
“We are flabbergasted by the fact that BES is unwilling to sign a contract requiring it to put into writing its previous oral promises,” he said on Friday, adding the firm had previously agreed to the government’s contract-signing conditions.
BES has said that it would seek a court injunction against the government. Hau said that based on precedent, there was no way the firm’s suit would stand up in court, because the city government and BES are still in the process of negotiating a contract.
“I think they’re using this as a means of slowing down the negotiating process,” he said, claiming that BES is seeking to wait out his administration in hopes the next city government would not hold it to previous promises.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
HORROR STORIES: One victim recounted not realizing they had been stabbed and seeing people bleeding, while another recalled breaking down in tears after fleeing A man on Friday died after he tried to fight the knife-wielding suspect who went on a stabbing spree near two of Taipei’s busiest metro stations, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. The 57-year-old man, identified by his family name, Yu (余), encountered the suspect at Exit M7 of Taipei Main Station and immediately tried to stop him, but was fatally wounded and later died, Chiang said, calling the incident “heartbreaking.” Yu’s family would receive at least NT$5 million (US$158,584) in compensation through the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp’s (TRTC) insurance coverage, he said after convening an emergency security response meeting yesterday morning. National
PLANNED: The suspect visited the crime scene before the killings, seeking information on how to access the roof, and had extensively researched a 2014 stabbing incident The suspect in a stabbing attack that killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei on Friday had planned the assault and set fires at other locations earlier in the day, law enforcement officials said yesterday. National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chang Jung-hsin (張榮興) said the suspect, a 27-year-old man named Chang Wen (張文), began the attacks at 3:40pm, first setting off smoke bombs on a road, damaging cars and motorbikes. Earlier, Chang Wen set fire to a rental room where he was staying on Gongyuan Road in Zhongzheng District (中正), Chang Jung-hsin said. The suspect later threw smoke grenades near two exits
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
RSS