The Taipei City Government has illegally profited contractors at the Taipei Performing Arts Center, Taipei City Councilor Lin Shih-tsung (林世宗) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday.
The performance center under construction on the former site of Taipei’s Shilin Night Market will be able to seat 3,000 people in three performance venues.
In 2013, the city council passed a NT$600 million (US$19.18 million) addition to the center’s original NT$4.8 billion construction budget.
Lin said the reasons for the increase were “incredible,” citing an internal memo signed by then-mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Reasons cited in the memo included “adapting to the site’s geology,” “meeting higher green architecture,” “taking into consideration the properties of Taiwan’s climate” and increasing the building’s floor space.
Lin said the reasons were “unprecedented” because the site’s design specifications did not change following the tenders.
“When the budget increase was requested, the site’s foundations and floor space were already completed,” he said, “The site’s floor space was always the same — not one meter was added.”
He added that inspectors of site geology had been required as part of plan approval, with green architecture requirements also included in the original construction plans.
Department of Cultural Affairs Executive Secretary Liu De-chien (劉得堅) said that the additional funds were necessary to pay for lighting and venue equipment, after the use of “better materials” for construction “crowded out” funding for the equipment in the original budget.
While the winning design plans for the center had originally called for a NT$5.4 million budget, the city government had originally economized to remain within the council’s approved budget, but failed to find the needed funds.
Department officials said the city increased the funds allocated to the site construction after an initial lower tender failed to attract bidders.
In response to questions by Lin, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that inaccurate budgeting by the city government was a “tendency that should be discouraged.” He said the city’s Clean Government Committee would hold a discussion on whether to conduct an investigation.
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