The Ministry of National Defense (MND) could dissolve its minesweeper contract with the scandal-prone Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船), which could delay delivery of the first vessel to 2023, Vice Minister of National Defense Admiral Pu Tze-chun (蒲澤春) said yesterday.
Ching Fu was awarded a contract to build six minesweepers for NT$35.8 billion (US$1.2 billion) as part of the nation’s domestic warship-building program and seeking a new contractor could lead to substantial delays to the minesweeper program, the MND said.
Last month, Ching Fu became the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on allegation of financial fraud, raising fears that the shipbuilder could go under.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee yesterday asked officials from the Ministry of Finance, Financial Supervisory Commission and MND to report on the state of the minesweeper project.
The MND’s report to the legislature stated that evidence of wrongdoing by Ching Fu would constitute grounds for contract cancelation.
Should cancelation be necessary, the MND would have the option of handing the contract to another shipbuilder, returning the procurement project to the tender phase or scrapping the minesweeper project, it said.
In response to questions by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Pu said the defense ministry would prefer to leave the contract with Ching Fu, assuming that the shipbuilder could deliver on schedule.
Another shipbuilder had expressed interest in the assignment, he said, adding that he was not at liberty to disclose its identity.
Pu said he believes that if the contract were to be canceled, it would be because of a declaration of insolvency by Ching Fu.
MND Armaments Bureau’s head of procurement Huang Hsi-ju (黃希儒) added that should Ching Fu declare bankruptcy, the MND would be within rights to demand restitution from the shipbuilder.
Handing the contract to another shipbuilder would delay the project by one to two years, while reopening bidding on the project would cause a delay of three to four years, Huang said.
When asked by Chiang whether delivery of the first ship could be delayed to 2020 or 2023, respectively under the two scenarios, Huang replied in the affirmative.
Meanwhile, CSBC Corp Taiwan (台船) chairman Cheng Wen-lon (鄭文隆) said CSBC would be willing to take over the minesweeper project if it finds the government’s terms favorable.
Completing all six minesweepers by 2025 would be a tight schedule, as CSBC would have little time and canceling government contracts is time-consuming, an unnamed CSBC manager said.
The easiest way to move forward would be for CSBC to acquire Ching Fu and carry on with the latter’s obligations, the manager said.
“To make this happen, the government would need to give CSBC favorable terms to clean up the mess,” the manager said.
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
RSS