The Taoyuan City Government yesterday implicated former deputy county commissioner Yeh Shih-wen (葉世文) in the deaths of six firefighters after a fire in a bowling alley in Sinwu District (新屋).
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) accused Yeh of holding a special meeting on April 2 last year to help the owners of the plot of land on which the bowling alley was built circumvent regulations on land use, adding that the land had been registered for agricultural use.
At the meeting, it was decided that any decisions regarding the land would be made by the department of agriculture instead of the bureau of urban development, Cheng said.
A report was changed to say that the building was not public property, Cheng said.
The decision was an error and it indicated administrative laziness among civil servants in the then-county government, Cheng said.
The contents of the meeting must be looked into and laid open for public scrutiny, Cheng added.
There might have been mistakes made by the past administration, but we must face facts and not seek to cover them up, Cheng said, adding that the city government would fully cooperate with investigations.
“Every mistake that is uncovered in the investigation will become the basis for government’s reforms,” Cheng said.
Cheng said that the Sinwu case involved an illegal construction built 20 years ago that had in the past year been flagged for a joint inspection, but the case had not been handled properly.
The problem clearly does not lie with any individual public servant, but with the local administration of the time, Cheng said, adding that a new government is expected to correct the mistakes of previous governments.
According to preliminary investigations by the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office, a then-county official surnamed Chang (張) and a Sinwu District Office official surnamed Cheng (鄭) have been accused of colluding over the construction of the building and are in custody.
The Department of Agriculture said it had alerted the Department of Public Works that the construction was in violation of regulations and should be prioritized for removal, but the district office said it had been awaiting further investigations.
EVA Airways was ranked the eighth-best airline in the world for this year, the only Taiwanese carrier to make it into the top 25 Airline Excellence Awards this year, aviation reviews Web site AirlineRatings.com said on Wednesday. AirlineRatings.com has a seven-star rating system to evaluate more than 360 airlines around the world every year, EVA Airways said in a statement on Thursday. “We are delighted that efforts by the entire EVA staff have been recognized by Airline Ratings,” EVA Airways president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said in the release. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company identified and adopted services and procedures that enhance and
A promotional event for the launch of a drinks store led to police questioning a 26-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), the Taichung Police Department said yesterday. Police said that they questioned Chang and forwarded the case to prosecutors, accusing her of producing, distributing, broadcasting or selling pornography. Police said she faces charges related to the alleged distribution of indecent photographs on Twitter and using overtly sexual innuendos to promote the store on Monday night. Officers stumbled upon the content during a routine Internet “patrol.” Chang faces a prison sentence of up to two years and up to a NT$90,000 fine if found guilty
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
MORE WARNINGS: If the US company does not clarify and solve issues with its frozen berries, the FDA might extend an import suspension implemented last month, it said The Kaohsiung Department of Health yesterday said it fined Costco NT$4.5 million (US$146,265) over contaminated frozen strawberries, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that although the US company had filed an improvement plan, an import suspension on frozen berries could remain. Three types of frozen berry products imported and sold by Costco have tested positive for the hepatitis A virus since April. The Kaohsiung health department previously fined Costco NT$300,000 for not providing the sales list of a contaminated batch of Kirkland Signature Three Berry Blend imported from Chile, in contravention of the Communicable Disease Control Act (傳染病防治法). It later
RSS