Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday denied involvement in the Xinsheng Overpass reconstruction scandal after a former city official indicated that he rushed the bidding process of the project following the mayor’s instructions.
Hau said he had demanded that the Department of New Construction stick to the schedule in order to complete the reconstruction of the overpass on time while following regulations.
“I asked the relevant departments to finish the construction project following the regulations of the Government Procurement Act (採購法) and I will cooperate with any interrogations if the prosecutors want to talk to me,” the mayor said.
Hau again urged the prosecutors to finish the probe of the scandal as soon as possible to reveal the truth.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper ) reported yesterday that Huang Hsi-hsun (黃錫薰), the former director of the department who has been detained for his alleged involvement in the case, told prosecutors that he raised the bidding price of the project because Hau and top officials instructed him to facilitate the bidding process after six failed attempts.
Huang said the mayor had instructed him during municipal meetings to adjust the floor price for the bid within a reasonable range to facilitate the bidding process for the seventh attempt, the story said.
The city government’s floor price rose from NT$1.62 billion (US$52.6 million) in the first round of bidding to NT$1.95 billion in the seventh round, with Kung Sing Engineering Corp winning the bid.
Prosecutors suspected that some city officials might have conspired with the company in boosting the prices for purchases in the project.
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