Four people were detained and questioned for their suspected roles in a procurement scandal, which involved the development of mobile radar systems at the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST), Taiwan’s top military hardware development center, and a computer component supplier.
Public prosecutors in Taoyuan, where the institute’s headquarters are located, took into custody three staff and a manager from the Taiwanese contractor company MiTAC for questioning on Wednesday, with all four suspects detained and held incommunicado as of yesterday.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office said the case concerned forgery of data and fabrication of evaluation results in the procurement of “Radar Vehicle for Field Operation and Air Defense,” which was undertaken by the Digital Warfare Section of the CSIST Information and Communications Research Division.
The program was commissioned in May, 2011, by the Ministry of National Defense Armaments Bureau as a pilot project to develop a vehicle-mounted mobile radar system equipped with a “radar signal generator.”
Computer manufacturer MiTAC won the contract order, with one radar vehicle unit costing about NT$70 million (US$2.22 million).
The tender called for the vehicle to be capable of carrying the radar equipment payload with great “slope-climbing ability” to prevent it from toppling over when the vehicle is advancing at 8kph up a 40o incline.
Investigators said that they uncovered forged evaluation results, adding that the vehicle could only advanced at about 6kph up a slope.
The evaluation was done at the institute’s vehicle research and testing center, and its report was presented to the Digital Warfare Section and MiTAC.
Prosecutors alleged three CSIST staff at the Digital Warfare Section responsible for the project altered the test results in collusion with the MiTAC manager, presenting the vehicle as meeting required specifications, and having passed the final approval and acceptance test for the project.
After receiving a tip-off, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office carried out an investigation and allegedly found evidence of forgery and tampered evaluation results.
They detained the three CSIST staff — section head Chou Chih-lung (周志隆), researcher Wu Chewng-hsun (吳政勳) and technician Hsiao Chen-yi (蕭振益), and MiTAC’s IT engineering section manager Wu Chun-lin (武俊麟) on Wednesday.
Although during questioning all four denied having committed the alleged violations, prosecutors have indicted them on forgery, profiteering and other offenses, while requesting the suspects be detained incommunicado to prevent possible collusion and destruction of evidence.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS