Ministry of National Defense officials said yesterday that the ministry would be “lucky” if construction of its new headquarters — which is already behind deadline and at the center of allegations of cronyism — could be completed by the end of this year.
The complex was originally scheduled to open in January 2008 and is already NT$2.5 billion (US$871 million) over its NT$15.8 billion budget.
Saying that progress was stalled because of contractor problems, Armaments Bureau Director Liu Fu-long (劉復龍) said the ministry “doesn’t plan to ask for any more funding and aims to see construction finished by the end of the year.”
“Once we finish construction, we will ask for reparations from the contractor as per our contract and government procurement laws,” Liu said.
The massive complex in Taipei City’s Dazhi (大直) district has seen planning and construction outlast three governments and eight ministers of defense. Planning for the complex began under former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and construction began in December 2003.
The project and its delays has drawn the attention of the Control Yuan, which accused defense officials of failing to promptly solve several problems, including the death of an engineer and a contractor’s financial difficulties.
“The ministry has given us some reasons for the delays. Some of these are real reasons and some are not. We are still investigating,” Control Yuan member Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥) told a press conference.
The Control Yuan said wiring for the complex’s electrical system was less than a quarter complete, while the overall completion rate was about 70 percent.
The ministry blames RPTI International, a power systems company, for most of the delays.
An unnamed source told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that the main contractor had asked the ministry to terminate its relationship with RPTI on seven separate occasions. However, the ministry decided to stick with the firm, giving rise to allegations that it enjoyed cozy relations with top military officials.
Defense officials said the reasons for the holdup had been resolved.
“An assessment by the ministry showed it would take six months to hold another round of bidding and would require extra funding if we terminated the contract with RPTI,” Liu said. “We came to an agreement whereby we would continue the contract and seek to collect damages later.”
On its Web site, RPTI makes clear references to its relationship with the government and state-owned enterprises.
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