Agencies yesterday carried out raids in connection with an investigation into a military procurement scandal that involves alleged corruption by officers in the Army Logistics Command (陸軍後勤指揮部), bid rigging, collusion with contractors, bribe-taking and the use of inferior components in armored personnel carriers.
Following the scandal, one contractor and four military officers from the Army Logistics Command’s Motor Vehicles Depot (汽車基地勤務處), headquartered in New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌), were summoned for questioning by prosecutors.
The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office along with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) launched a probe into alleged bid rigging and other corruption practices by procurement officials at the army’s Motor Vehicles Depot, after it received reports earlier this year.
The allegations indicated that certain officials had received bribe money from a company headed up by a businessman surnamed Liu (劉).
Investigators said that Liu’s company had won tenders for several of these contracts with the Motor Vehicles Depot, including supplying the army with 50 Humvees, other armored personnel carriers, and repairs and maintenance.
However, procurement officials had colluded with Liu on bid rigging, specifying conditions in the tenders in favor of Liu’s company in exchange for receiving bribes that totaled 1 percent of the contracted amounts, investigators said.
Investigators also received reports that Liu’s company had supplied low-quality components and parts from China for military vehicles, which was in violation of the tender conditions.
The procurement officials knew about this, but eased the acceptance tests required for their approval, which investigators said had compromised vehicle operation and endangered the safety and lives of soldiers.
Preceding yesterday’s operation, prosecutors and MJIB units in July conducted a first round of raids at 26 locations in connection with the corruption probe, questioning 20 staff from the vehicle depot and detaining three military officers and three contractors, pending further investigation at that time.
They were questioning four military officers from the depot’s procurement office and one businessman surnamed Tsai (蔡), the MJIB said yesterday.
The bureau added that they plan to file charges on violations of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
There were also allegations of the procurement office employees illegally selling vehicle parts and components on the black market to private businesses to make a profit on the side.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods