After failing to front up to prosecutors yesterday for questioning over allegations of graft in the construction of an incinerator, Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) received a second summons from the Yunlin District Prosecutor's Office.
Some Yunlin County councilors expressed support for Chang yesterday, while environmentalists insist that alleged kickbacks from the project are typical of how public construction projects are handled in this country.
Following a raid on Chang's residence and office on Friday, prosecutors summoned him to appear for questioning yesterday. However, Chang did not respond to the summons and did not appear at the offices of the prosecutors.
Chang's sister, Chang Li-shan (
"Su tried to be an intermediary for the incinerator project but failed. I suspect that the prosecutor's investigation was influenced by the opinions of Su," Chang Li-shan said.
Su, who is believed to be interested in running for county commissioner at the next election, dismissed the accusation.
"It's absurd. I have never known a prosecutor by that name," Su said.
She added that she had opposed the incinerator project for years and had never been involved in land purchases for the project.
Responding to Chang Li-shan's accusation, Yunlin Chief Prosecutor Hung Shao-wen (
He said that prosecutors would continue to ask Chang Jung-wei to appear, and that if he did not eventually show up he would be detained.
In debate at the county council, councilor Cheng Kuo-yi (
Environmentalists said, however, that it was a shame that the project had led to such an embarrassing situation.
"We didn't see any government mechanisms doing a responsible evaluation of the project. The remote location of the Linnei Incinerator made the cost of transporting household waste three times greater than that for incinerators elsewhere in the country," Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) of the Taiwan Watch Institute told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Hsieh said that the environmental impact assessment for the pro-ject was conducted sloppily because no one had asked questions about the project's high unit cost for treating household waste -- about NT$2,100 per tonne.
Hsieh said the Linnei Incinerator was just the tip of the iceberg, because projects with similar problems existed in other jurisdictions. For example, Hsieh said, the unit cost for an incinerator under trial in Taitung County was about NT$2,300 per tonne. The standard unit cost for other municipal incinerators treating household waste is less than NT$1,000.
About 90 percent of the construction of the Linnei Incinerator, the daily treatment limit of which is 600 tonnes, has been completed. The NT$3.3 million project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
The Yunlin Prosecutor's Office said the investigation into the alleged bribery began in June, when an anonymous Yunlin resident reported that county government officials -- including Chang Jung-wei -- had accepted a sizable bribe.
Since June, eight contractors and officials have been detained by prosecutors in relation to the case.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS