Sat, Oct 06, 2007 page2

• City councilor questions legitimacy of lucky draw

  MORE THAN LUCKY Hsu Chia-ching pointed out that two families had scooped a large number of the prizes in a Taipei lucky draw by entering more than 200 times

  • By Mo Yan-chih / STAFF REPORTER
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  A Taipei city councilor yesterday questioned the legitimacy of a lucky draw in which the members of two families claimed 25 of the 84 prizes on offer.

  The lucky draw in question was held on Taipei's Car Free Day on Sept. 15, with some individuals winning more than two prizes each.

  The event was organized by the Taipei City and Taipei County governments and prizes included bicycles, TVs and hotel coupons.

  Seventeen participants surnamed Chen registered under the same contact number won eight prizes, while another eight people surnamed Lin, who also registered using a single telephone number, received 17 prizes.

  The Chen and Lin families used the same method to win eight prizes during last year's car-free event, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said, adding that the names of city government staffers appeared on a list of winners in a riddle contest held by the city government.

  "It's obvious that these two families violated the regulations and took an unequal share of the prizes. I don't know whether the city government was simply careless or it granted a certain group of people special privileges," Hsu told a press conference yesterday at the Taipei City Council.

  In response, Shen Hui-hong (沈慧虹), a division chief of the transportation department, admitted the department had been negligent and said the government had already taken back some of the prizes.

  The department will hold another draw soon, Shen said.

  Although the rules of the draw stated that nobody could enter more than once, Shen said the two families entered more than 200 times.

  In response to Hsu's second allegation, Taipei City's Department of Government Ethics said staffers and their family members were never permitted to participate in lucky draws held by the city government. The department said it would investigate to see if anything improper had occurred.

  Hsu said she would forward her information to the Investigation Bureau's Taipei office.
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