Taipei prosecutors yesterday detained two city government officials and one contractor over their alleged involvement in a bribery case concerning major road construction projects around the city.
The three detainees are Chen Ming-kuan (
Prosecutors also interviewed seven other officials and Wang's co-workers, but later released them on bail ranging from NT$50,000 to NT$300,000.
"We discovered that these people have been working together for more than six years. Their `cooperation' has resulted in more than 10 major roads in the city not being built according to standard procedures," said Lin Jinn-tsun (
"This means that several major roads, including sections six and seven of Roosevelt Road and Neihu Road, will not last as long as expected," Lin said.
He added that city contracts state asphalt on major roads must be at least 5cm thick. By bribing the officials, contractors only laid between 3cm and 3.5cm, but they were still paid in full.
"Prosecutors have visited these locations and found that the asphalt is not thick enough. That is the reason why potholes appear so quickly, especially after heavy rain," Lin said.
Lin said that prosecutors were still trying to figure out how much money the officials had accepted from the contractors over the years.
"Because of the bribery, countless scooter and motorcycle riders were injured after hitting potholes on these roads. Many motorists have also spent a lot of money fixing their cars because of those potholes. Now they have to pay for what they have done," he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
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