CSBC Corp, Taiwan (CSBC, 台灣國際造船) yesterday said the company is willing to continue the construction of minesweeper ships if Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co’s (慶富造船) contract with the Ministry of National Defense is terminated.
Ching Fu in 2014 won a contract to build six minesweepers on a budget of up to NT$35.85 billion (US$1.185 billion), but might not be able to fulfill the contract due to financial fraud allegations and technical problems.
In August, prosecutors found that the company had secured a NT$20.5 billion loan from a consortium of nine banks headed by First Commercial Bank (第一銀行) by providing the banks with false contracts.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) on Tuesday said that the government would terminate the contract if necessary to prevent further losses.
The ministry would terminate the contract if Ching Fu halts construction of the first minesweeper — which is being built in Italy — or if it declares bankruptcy, among other scenarios, Navy Command Headquarters Chief of Staff Lee Tsung-hsiao (李宗孝) said on Thursday at the Legislative Yuan.
At a forum on the nation’s indigenous shipbuilding program at the legislature yesterday, ministry officials presented evidence that Ching Fu’s work should have been 7.9 percent complete, but is now 1.26 percent behind schedule because the construction of a factory in Kaohsiung’s Sinda Fishing Port is not yet finished.
The ministry has presented Ching Fu with a deadline to improve its efficiency, a ministry official said.
The ministry is watching the company’s performance closely, but it has not met any necessary conditions for contract termination, Vice Minister of National Defense Pu Tze-chun (蒲澤春) said.
Considering Ching Fu had beaten CSBC to win the tender in 2014, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) inquired about the latter company’s willingness to continue building the minesweepers if Ching Fu were to drop out.
Technically speaking, CSBC is competent to build the minesweepers, but whether it could join the program depends on the ministry’s attitude and how a contract would be negotiated, CSBC vice president Chou Chih-ming (周志明) said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan has established an investigative body convened by Vice Premier Shih Jun-ji (施俊吉) to probe the Ching Fu scandal, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said yesterday.
Whether defense ministry officials would face punishment for dereliction of duty would depend on the results of the investigation, Hsu added.
Additional reporting by Lee Hsin-fang
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS