Prosecutors yesterday raided 14 locations around the country as part of an investigation targeting construction firms involved in the Taipei International Flora Expo.
Leading agents from the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, prosecutors searched Resources Engineering Services Inc (RESI), Chun-Chia Soil and Sandstone Co’s offices in Taipei and New Taipei City (新北市) and Tang-Yi Construction Co in Greater Kaohsiung, among others.
Three defendants and five witnesses from the three companies were questioned.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Wang Wen-te (王文德) said the Taipei City Government in 2008 invited public bids for the design and construction of the Expo Theater, the Celebrity’s House and the Pavilion of Culture in the Yuanshan Park Area. RESI won the bid for design and supervision, while Tang-Yi was put in charge of construction.
The contract stipulated that backfill soil used in the construction should come from the city’s riverbed, which the authorities had given permission to use, or soil left over from other construction projects related to the flora expo, Wang said.
However, prosecutors said Tang-Yi did not use soil from the two sources and is suspected instead of using soil from an unknown source. On July 20, 2009, the company asked the city to amend the contract and asked for NT$13 million (US$445,000) extra for the purchase of soil from Chun-Chia.
Wang said the city suspects Tang-Yi forged documents related to soil purchases from Chun-Chia as well as transportation records, adding that the company appeared to have attempted to defraud the city.
The city government rejected the request for amendments to the contract, Wang said, and sent the case to Taipei prosecutors for investigation.
Wang said investigators had yet to determine whether city government officials were involved in the scandal.
Commenting on the case, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday said the city government noticed the contractors wasted soil in some construction projects of the pavilions and took the initiative to report the case to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last year.
“The city government took the initiative to report the case and we will cooperate with the investigation. We will not harbor any civil servants or officials if they are found guilty,” he said.
Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文), executive director of the expo, said expo organizers discovered that the contractors used problematic soils in the construction of the Expo Theater, the Pavilion of Culture and Celebrity’s House.
He said the city will order the contractors to pay fines if the investigation found it guilty, but declined to say whether the city government has already paid the construction fees.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
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