Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of granting favors to the contractor of the MRT Wenhu Line's electromechanical system by allowing it to adjust construction costs based on inflation.
The councilors — Lee Chien-chang (李建昌), Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) — said Hau had bent the rules set by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his tenure as city mayor.
“Mayor Ma signed an official notice stating that the construction costs of the MRT's electromechanical systems could not be adjusted because of inflation,” Lee told a press conference.
“The terms stated in the MRT contract also exclude contractors of the electromechanical system from adjusting their costs based on inflation and asked them to evaluate risks after they secured contracts,” Lee said.
“These documents showed that the contractor asked if it could enjoy the privilege of adjusting its cost based on inflation after winning the bid in 2003,” Lee said.
“Prior to 2006, the Department of Rapid Transit Systems [DORTS] repeatedly rejected the contractor’s requests. But in May 2007, the department proposed that the contractor’s request be accepted, which was subsequently approved by Hau in November 2007. The city then agreed to pay the contractor NT$1.5 billion in additional cost because of inflation,” he said.
Huang also showed a document stating that the city agreed to this settlement because the DORTS said that failure to subsidize the contractor would delay the launch of the Wenhu Line, which was scheduled to begin operations in June.
After the press conference, the three councilors submitted the materials to the Control Yuan for investigation. They also filed lawsuits against Hau for allegedly favoring the contractor.
Taipei City Government spokesperson Rose Chao (趙心屏) rebutted the allegations, saying that the measures were legal.
“The mayor approved the request in accordance with measures laid out by the Public Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan in 2004 stating that construction costs for projects scheduled for completion after Oct. 1, 2003, can be adjusted if inflation exceeded 2.5 percent. This applies to any construction project, even those that have a special clause on inflation in the contract,” she said.
Chao said Hau did not bend the rules set by his predecessor, and that Ma established the rule at a time when there was no national regulation governing costs adjustments.
The change was simply made in accordance with the new measures, she said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include