Former Miaoli County commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday rebuffed criticism from incumbent Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) that Liu was “over-extravagant,” calling on Hsu to step down if he is is not up to the job.
Hsu, also a KMT member, was in Taipei on Friday to meet with Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), who he asked for a bailout because the county government is unable to pay its employees’ wages this month.
The commissioner attributed the “huge hole” of debt to the former county administration.
Liu yesterday said that there is no need for Hsu to “cry,” as he could “simply step down, if he is incompetent.”
Underscoring the importance of “financial management,” Liu said he had never fallen into arrears with employees’ salaries during his nine years in the Miaoli government.
Liu said that many of the development projects in the county were “golden eggs,” such as the special industrial zone of the High Speed Railway district, land with a value of about NT$10 billion (US$322 million) that he said could be used to secure a bank loan.
“I would not say it could be a loan of NT$7 billion or NT$8 billion, but at least NT$5 billion could be expected, with which the employees’ wages and pensions could definitely be covered,” he said.
Asked about the county’s massive debt, Liu said the official figure before he left office, “reviewed and ratified by the Ministry of Finance,” was NT$39.8 billion.
“The NT$64.8 billion reported elsewhere has project reserve funds and construction payables added,” Liu said.
“These will be paid with the money to be allotted by the central government and other agencies when the projects are done. They should not be counted as debt,” Liu said.
He also called into question Hsu’s work ethic.
“I’ve heard that [Hsu] goes to the office at 8:30am; I always started work from 7am,” he said.
Hsu said the people of Miaoli are watching.
“[As to the question of] who is competent or not, [I believe that] everyone has a standard in mind,” Hsu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) criticized Liu, saying that calling people incompetent was wrong.
“[Liu’s] competence lies in his capability to scam the central government,” Lin said.
Lin said there were at least six development projects that have either not begun or have had their contracts terminated, all of which allowed Liu’s county government to pocket millions in bonuses from the central government as “rewards for the promotion of private participation in infrastructure projects.”
According to a Next Magazine report in May, the county government accrued a debt of NT$64.8 billion, a NT$44.6 billion jump from NT$20.2 billion during Liu’s nine-year governance.
The Taipei City Government yesterday officially launched the “YouBike 2.0” system, an upgraded version of the bicycle rental service, saying that it aims to expand the service to more than 1,200 stations throughout the city. The system yesterday activated 160 new stations, in addition to 103 stations in the Gongguan (公館) shopping area near the National Taiwan University campus. A trial run of YouBike2.0 was launched there in January last year. The Taipei Department of Transportation said that bicycles of the upgraded system feature solar panels and card censors, which allow users to rent them by swiping their EasyCard or scanning a QR
‘COLD ATTITUDE’: The man claimed that his wife of nearly 50 years had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years and that she refused to bathe A court last month rejected a man’s application for a divorce over lack of evidence that his wife “would rather feed stray dogs” than her husband. The 90-year-old man, surnamed Chao (趙), filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 50 years, surnamed Tung (董), saying that she had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years. “Every morning my wife goes to Gaoping Bridge to feed stray dogs and does not come home until late,” Chao said. “I am 90 and I need to be taken care of,” he said, complaining of his wife’s “cold attitude” toward him. Chao also complained in
QUARANTINE BLUNDER: The government should be responsible for a cluster infection at a hotel, as the cases have caused panic, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen said The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should make it mandatory for pilots and flight attendants, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated in view of a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, lawmakers said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday. The cluster infection at the hotel had led to 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including hotel workers, as well as China Airlines flight and cabin crew, and their family members. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday tightened quarantine requirements for pilots and flight attendants, who must quarantine
DATA-DRIVEN: The dedicated department used big data to find sexual harassment hot spots on the Mass Rapid Transit system to take measures against perpetrators Most incidents of sexual harassment and secret photography in Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system over the past five years occurred at three stations, the Rapid Transit Division of the Taipei City Police Department said in a statement yesterday. Most incidents were recorded at Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT Station, followed by Taipei Main and Zhongxiao-Dunhua MRT stations, the department said, adding that the results were obtained through big data analysis. The system, which serves Taipei and New Taipei City, handles about 2.2 million passengers per day, and most cases of secret photography and sexual harassment — usually involving touching a victims buttocks or chest
RSS