Four people were released on bail yesterday amid a probe into alleged corruption over a NT$110 million (US$3.8 million) contract for work at a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) station in Hsinchu County.
Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office officials said that 15 locations in Taipei, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were searched on Thursday and 15 people have been questioned in connection with the case.
The investigation was launched into the tender process for a contract to the reconstruction of the station in Sinfong Township (新豐), which was awarded to Kaohsiung-based Hua Sheng Engineering Construction Co.
Photo: Chen Wei-tsu, Taipei Times
Hua Sheng owner Su Cheng-ta (蘇成達), TRA Department of Electrical Engineering head Chou Tsu-te (周祖德), TRA Taipei maintenance section chief Lin Chao-cheng (林昭正) and TRA project inspector Lu Hsing-hung (盧星宏) face charges of forgery and other breaches of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), prosecutors said.
The four men were released after posting bail of NT$300,000 each.
The three TRA officials are accused of colluding with Su to falsify budget documents after the project was awarded to Taoyuan-based Kuo Kung Construction Co for NT$110 million.
Work began in April 2008 to reconstruct parts of the railway station and add new facilities, prosecutors said.
Chou and Lin colluded to hand the project over to Hua Sheng, citing delays and other issues that resulted in the agreement with Kuo Kung being terminated in October 2008, prosecutors said.
The two men reopened the public tender, which was won by Hua Sheng at a reduced bid of NT$100 million, prosecutors said.
Chou and Lin allegedly colluded with Lu to produce falsified records, which led to Hua Sheng securing the contract, prosecutors said, adding that the case involves about NT$5 million in illegal profit.
Kuo Kung was riled by the termination of its work agreement and filed a lawsuit against the TRA to secure a refund and compensation on top.
The High Court ruled in the company’s favor and ordered the TRA to pay it NT$4.94 million.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
RSS