Kaohsiung Marine Bureau Director-General Wang Tuan-jen (王端仁) on Tuesday tendered his resignation following a leaked audio recording from October last year of him discussing the lease of Singda Harbor (興達港) to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co (慶富造船).
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) approved Wang’s resignation that evening.
The city spent a great deal of money to build Singda Harbor, Wang said in a statement, adding that the port’s underutilization and its coming under scrutiny by the Control Yuan have troubled him deeply.
As a result, he led the bureau to seek opportunities for work with the private sector so it would revitalize the harbor, Wang said.
Wang denied any wrongdoing, saying that the city did not sign a memorandum of understanding with Ching Fu to allow the shipbuilder use of the harbor, nor did it made any quid pro quo exchanges.
Chen on a late-night news program said that Wang submitted his resignation, which she granted immediately, adding that she believes in Wang’s integrity and innocence.
“I have considered this issue from the perspective of respecting his personal choices,” she said. “Wang’s comments in the recording were inappropriate, but the case is being investigated and he will have to wait for those results.”
“I hope people’s attention will return to the true matter at hand, which is the minesweeper scandal,” she added.
Singda Harbor cost about NT$7.5 billion (US$248 million at the current exchange rate) to build and its disuse is an issue that troubled the city deeply, which led to an aggressive search for industry partners, she said.
“Although Wang’s comments were inappropriate, there was no quid pro quo and I have deep faith in his integrity. I further state the city government’s abiding support for Premier William Lai’s (賴清德) vow to get to the bottom of this,” she said.
In a show of support, several DPP Kaohsiung City Councilors yesterday called a news conference to assert Wang’s innocence.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Cheng Kuang-feng (鄭光峰) said Wang went to the meeting with Ching Fu accompanied by six officials.
“If he had intended to discuss any illicit dealings, it does not make sense for him to go with that many officials,” Cheng said. “Wang was overzealous in trying to do a good job.”
The Fisheries Agency and Kaohsiung Marine Bureau were helping things along from the perspective of assisting the government’s domestic warships policy and revitalizing the harbor, he said.
That the city government’s resorting to open bidding for use of the harbor showed that there was no wrongdoing, he said.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Kao Min-lin (高閔琳) said the Fisheries Agency is the harbor’s managing authority and Wang was representing the city’s views at the meeting.
“This is a smear campaign,” she said.
Kaohsiung City Councilor Lee Po-yi (李柏毅) said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians are attacking Wang to shift blame from a scandal that implicated former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
“The script for this mud-slinging is poorly written,” he added.
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