Prosecutors yesterday said they were investigating a suspected corruption case involving a construction project and officials from the Council of Indigenous Peoples.
Changhua prosecutors and prosecutors from the Special Investigation Panel of the Supreme Prosecutors Office led agents from the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau yesterday on a raid of two construction companies in Taichung.
The officials said the two companies were suspected of making nearly NT$400 million (US$13 million) in illegal profits, while officials from the council are suspected of accepting bribes from the two firms.
Prosecutors said in 2000 that the Council of Indigenous Peoples selected the two construction companies to build a housing community in Changhua’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑) for Aborigines left homeless by the 921 Earthquake.
Each apartment was priced at NT$2.68 million (US$88,000) and Aboriginal buyers could qualify for bank loans of NT$2.18 million with a guarantee offered by the council.
The remaining NT$500,000 was covered by a mortgage, prosecutors said.
To attract buyers, the council offered free job training classes to buyers and offered each buyer NT$100,000 for living expenses.
But prosecutors said they began receiving letters of complaint from residents of the community earlier this year, who said the apartments were substandard and not fit to live in.
The letters accused the contractors of cutting corners, claiming the builders had used sea sand in the cement, which was starting to corrode.
The authors of the letters felt they had been cheated by the construction companies, the prosecutors said.
Council officials are suspected of collaborating with the two companies to build the apartments using substandard materials, the prosecutors said.
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