President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday stood by the decision to build the Wenshan-Neihu MRT Line as a medium-capacity system and to tie electrical and mechanical work on the line to the civil engineering tender for its construction, offering to take responsibility for any wrongdoing on his part.
Ma made the remarks during a one-and-a-half hour meeting with four Control Yuan members at the Presidential Office. The Control Yuan is probing alleged irregularities in the construction of the line.
Construction on the line, which was planned during Ma’s tenure as Taipei mayor, began in 2002 and the line opened in July.
At yesterday’s meeting, Ma was asked whether he would share responsibility for the problems as the line was built partly during his term.
“If there is responsibility to take, I’m willing to shoulder it,” Control Yuan member Hung Chao-nan (洪昭男) quoted Ma as saying.
Hung, along with Control Yuan members Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光), Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥) and Chao Jung-yao (趙榮耀), focused their questions on three points: why Ma’s city government decided to build a medium-capacity system rather than an underground, heavy-capacity system; its policy in choosing a civil-engineering company and letting that company choose its electrical engineering partners, and Ma’s relationship to Pan Chun–jung (潘俊榮), whose Kung Sing Engineering Corp (工信工程) won the bid.
Ma was quoted by the Control Yuan members as saying that he continues to believe that the decision to build a medium-capacity system was “correct.”
Ma said the system had a “limited budget” because the Democratic Progressive Party-controlled (DPP) central government refused to subsidize a heavy capacity system. Moreover, there were numerous underground pipes in Neihu District (內湖) that prevented underground projects.
Ma also defended his administration’s bidding policy, under which the city government adopted the lump-sum lowest bid method to award the contract to the civil-engineering company that submitted the lowest bid price — Kung Sing Engineering Construction. Kung Sing then subcontracted the electrical work to Bombardier, which is based in Canada.
The Wenshan-Neihu Line was designed to link up with the former Muzha Line, which was built by French contractor Matra Co in the 1990s. Because of compatibility problems, however, the line has repeatedly suffered glitches and malfunctions since it began operating last year.
On whether Ma was involved in the decision-making process during the bidding for the line, Ger said the president told the Control Yuan members that while he agreed to the bidding proposal at a meeting he was presiding “for other business reasons, left the meeting before the decision was made.”
Despite criticism of Bombardier, which has limited experience with medium-capacity systems, Ma was quoted by Control Yuan members as saying that he “has confidence in the line” and that “it has become stable.”
Ma asked the Control Yuan members to examine the average distance traveled by a train between malfunctions, saying that Taipei’s MRT system still ranked first in the world in terms of its stability.
Ma was also quoted as saying that he knows Pan, though not well, and that the bidding was fair and legal.
The Control Yuan members yesterday praised Ma’s offer to meet them and his “candid” and “sincere” attitude in answering their questions.
“We hope to complete our investigation report before [Feb. 12],” Ger told a press conference.
Chao said both parties agreed that the meeting, which took place in the form of “tea gathering” was in fact “a subpoena of the president by Control Yuan members.”
The Presidential Office disagrees with the Control Yuan’s position that it is empowered to investigate and impeach the president and vice president over irregularities that took place during previous positions of authority, but it has agreed to take the matter to the Council of Grand Justices, Chao said.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday said that until it is clear that the Control Yuan has the power to summon the president for questioning, Ma must be careful not to set any precedents.
“The meeting comes in the form of a tea party, but in essence meets the needs of the Control Yuan members,” he said.
Wang said Ma considered work on the MRT system to be “the proudest” achievement of his two terms in office as Taipei mayor. From 2005 to 2008, Taipei’s MRT system was considered among the world’s most reliable, he said.
The DPP yesterday said the Control Yuan should have determined first if it is empowered to investigate Ma over the matter.
If so, the Control Yuan members should have taken investigators with them to the meeting, DPP spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said. If not, they should not make any moves to probe the case until Ma’s time as president is over.”
“They should by no means rush to close this case,” Tsai said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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