The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection forcibly pushed through a parking tower project after its budget had been frozen, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lin Shih-tsung (林世宗) said yesterday.
A proposal by the department to build a parking tower for garbage trucks on land owned by the Beitou Incineration Plant was rejected by the Taipei City Council in 2012 after city councilors raised doubts over the need for the project, Lin said at a question-and-answer session with department commissioner Liou Ming-lone (劉銘龍).
It would have cost the city NT$420 million (US$13.39 million) to build the parking tower, Lin said.
A department section chief was given a demerit for overestimating parking needs in the area and for costing the city NT$1.26 million in construction planning fees, Lin said.
However, as the city council in 2011 granted the department a budget of NT$15 million to pay for the project’s planning fees, the department continued to push the project even after it was rejected by the city council, costing the city an additional NT$5.7 million, he said.
Lin accused department officials of former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) administration of arbitrarily approving the project.
In May the city paid NT$3.14 million to an architect, surnamed Ting (丁), whom the department contracted to plan the construction.
Lin accused the department of avoiding the city council’s scrutiny and misappropriating city funds, saying that the project should have been terminated in 2012.
He said the Taipei Department of Government Ethics should deliver an investigative report on possible illegalities in the project.
Department Deputy Commissioner Lu Shih-chang (盧世昌) said the continued spending came after the city’s procurement dispute review committee ruled that the department had underpaid Ting for work he had done on the project.
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