Kaohsiung Marine Bureau Director-General Wang Tuan-jen (王端仁) on Tuesday tendered his resignation following a leaked audio recording from October last year of him discussing the lease of Singda Harbor (興達港) to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船).
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) approved Wang’s resignation that evening.
The city spent a great deal of money to build Singda Harbor, Wang said in a statement, adding that the port’s underutilization and its coming under scrutiny by the Control Yuan have troubled him deeply.
As a result, he led the bureau to seek opportunities for work with the private sector so it would revitalize the harbor, Wang said.
Wang denied any wrongdoing, saying that the city did not sign a memorandum of understanding with Ching Fu to allow the shipbuilder use of the harbor, nor did it made any quid pro quo exchanges.
Chen on a late-night news program said that Wang submitted his resignation, which she granted immediately, adding that she believes in Wang’s integrity and innocence.
“I have considered this issue from the perspective of respecting his personal choices,” she said. “Wang’s comments in the recording were inappropriate, but the case is being investigated and he will have to wait for those results.”
“I hope people’s attention will return to the true matter at hand, which is the minesweeper scandal,” she added.
Singda Harbor cost about NT$7.5 billion (US$248 million at the current exchange rate) to build and its disuse is an issue that troubled the city deeply, which led to an aggressive search for industry partners, she said.
“Although Wang’s comments were inappropriate, there was no quid pro quo and I have deep faith in his integrity. I further state the city government’s abiding support for Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) vow to get to the bottom of this,” she said.
In a show of support, several DPP Kaohsiung City Councilors yesterday called a news conference to assert Wang’s innocence.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Cheng Kuang-feng (鄭光峰) said Wang went to the meeting with Ching Fu accompanied by six officials.
“If he had intended to discuss any illicit dealings, it does not make sense for him to go with that many officials,” Cheng said. “Wang was overzealous in trying to do a good job.”
The Fisheries Agency and Kaohsiung Marine Bureau were helping things along from the perspective of assisting the government’s domestic warships policy and revitalizing the harbor, he said.
That the city government’s resorting to open bidding for use of the harbor showed that there was no wrongdoing, he said.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Kao Min-lin (高閔琳) said the Fisheries Agency is the harbor’s managing authority and Wang was representing the city’s views at the meeting.
“This is a smear campaign,” she said.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Po-yi (李柏毅) said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians are attacking Wang to shift blame from a scandal that implicated former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
“The script for this mud-slinging is poorly written,” he added.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS