Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday denied that he or his family had any ties to a contractor involved in the Xinsheng Overpass project, adding that he would consider banning the firm from bidding for future projects should it be guilty of corruption.
Hau told the Taipei City Council it was his understanding that Join Engineering Consultants was not a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-run business, and that neither he nor his father, former premier and KMT member Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), had anything to do with the firm.
Hau said he would fully cooperate with prosecutors and investigators and resign should he be found guilty of benefiting Join Engineering or any other companies.
If Join Engineering Consultants were found to be guilty of corruption, Hau said he would consider blacklisting the firm and barring it from future bidding for projects.
Hau was evasive about whether the city would use taxpayers’ money to cover the litigation fees and losses should Join Engineering file a lawsuit and request compensation. He said that if it came down to a court case, he was confident the city would prevail.
Hau said the project did not have to go through him and could be decided by department heads, adding that the administrative procedure was the same when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor was in power.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Chen Chia-ming (陳嘉銘), however, said that at the very least, the deputy mayor or secretary-general should have been aware of the project.
Chen also questioned whether the mayor was serious about tackling graft as the task force was led by Hau and staffed with more city officials than outside experts.
DPP Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) called the task force a “collusion center” designed to get Hau off the hook, adding that some key information in the documents he requested from the city government had been removed.
Hau said the practice existed when former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was Taipei mayor.
DPP councilors engaged in a shouting match with Hau and other officials when Hung and DPP Councilor Chou Po-ya (周柏雅) grumbled about what they called the city’s procrastination in providing them with documents.
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
Taiwan yesterday expelled four China Coast Guard vessels that entered Taiwan-controlled restricted waters off Lienchiang County (Matsu) shortly after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army announced the start of its “Joint Sword-2024B” drills around Taiwan. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a statement that it had detected two China Coast Guard ships west of Nangan Island (南竿) and another two north of Dongyin Island (東引) at 8am yesterday. After Chinese ships sailed into restricted waters off Matsu shortly afterward, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch deployed four patrol vessels to shadow and approach the vessels, it said. The incidents pushed up to 44 the number
Renovations on the B3 concourse of Taipei Main Station are to begin on Nov. 1, with travelers advised to use entrances near the Taiwan Railway or high-speed rail platforms or information counter to access the MRT’s Red Line. Construction is to be completed before the end of next year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said last week. To reduce the impact on travelers, the NT$95 million (US$2.95 million) project is to be completed in four stages, it said. In the first stage, the hall leading to the Blue Line near the art exhibition area is to be closed from Nov. 1 to the end
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
RSS