The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday confirmed that it had detected suspicious activity, after Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that an insider had been selling sensitive tender documents to potential contractors.
Huang earlier yesterday in a Facebook post said the leaks occurred in the past months and concerned tender documents for Intelligence Surveillance Systems from the institute’s Pengyuan Campus.
It was not a singular case, but a string of information leaks pertaining to military procurement, he said.
Photo: Taipei Times
He accused Minister of National Defense and institute chair Wellington Koo (顧立雄) of “turning a blind eye,” and asked if everyone at the institute “takes a cut.”
The institute plays a major role in national defense, undertaking research projects commissioned by branches of the military while producing and maintaining a range of weapons systems for the armed forces, Huang said.
Each year, the institute receives almost NT$100 billion (US$3.26 billion) from the ministry, he said.
The institute said that suspicious activity pertaining to the unusual copying of documents was detected by its internal security mechanisms.
It launched a preliminary investigation before referring the case to the Military Police Command on Aug. 14, which transferred the case to prosecutors for a judicial investigation, it said.
It vowed to enforce the harshest punishment for those responsible to serve as a stark warning for others.
The documents in question did contain trade secrets such as tender documents, the institute said.
During the open bidding period, such documents are made available to companies looking to submit tenders, it said.
It is suspected that the person responsible leaked the documents early to a potential client, it added.
The institute denied Huang’s claim that Koo turned a blind eye.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
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