Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was summoned to brief the Control Yuan on a work suspension order the Taipei City Government issued for construction work on the Taipei Dome in May last year.
Taipei Dome contractor Farglory Group earlier this year filed a petition with the Control Yuan asking it to determine if the suspension was legal.
Responding to questions after emerging from behind closed doors, Ko said that he told Control Yuan members the city government suspended the construction in accordance with the law.
He said that he put incidents concerning the Taipei Dome into perspective and explained the legal basis for the suspension.
He thanked Control Yuan members for calling the meeting with the intention to “solve problems.”
Asked to comment on Farglory’s accusation that Taipei was “haggling” when it reduced the Taipei Dome’s maximum capacity from 140,000 to 90,000 people, Ko said that all safety standards introduced by the city government for the construction would remain unchanged, regardless of Farglory obtaining permission to resume construction or a third party taking over the project.
“Do they expect us to kneel down and surrender? That would be outrageous,” Ko said.
Meanwhile, Taipei City Hospital superintendent Huang Sheng-chien (黃勝堅) yesterday became the first Taipei official to be impeached by the Control Yuan since Ko took office.
The Control Yuan yesterday held a correction and impeachment committee meeting, at which it unanimously upheld an impeachment ruling.
The Control Yuan said that Huang doubled as director of two holding companies when he was the head of the National Taiwan University Hospital’s Jinshan Branch from 2011 to January last year — as well as founder of one of the firms — in violation of the Civil Service Act (公務員服務法), which stipulates that civil servants should not engage in commercial activities.
Huang’s case is to be forwarded to the Control Yuan’s Disciplinary Committee.
Commenting on Huang’s impeachment, Ko said that the two firms are Huang’s “family businesses.”
Huang came from a wealthy family and he has served as a director at the firms since he was young, Ko said, adding that Huang did not mean to conceal his jobs in the private sector.
“As our nation’s declaration systems [at government agencies] are not interconnected, it was discovered very late,” he said.
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