The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday called on the Control Yuan to investigate Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and Food and Drug Administration Director Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) over alleged dereliction of duty regarding a small company’s bid to procure rapid COVID-19 test kits.
The KMT on Wednesday questioned Golden Global Biomedicine Co’s (高登環球生醫) eligibility to join the bidding process to import 17 million COVID-19 screening kits.
The KMT said the company had neither the funding — it only has capital of NT$2 million (US$67,431) — nor the expertise, as it was a food stall before becoming a biomedical company.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Golden Global on Wednesday said it was backing out of the bid, adding that the KMT should join the bid itself “for the good of the Taiwanese people.”
How Golden Global acquired the information about the contract — a major investment into government purchases — is unknown, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said.
KMT Legislator Sandy Yeh (葉毓蘭) said that in her experience, the public should not be surprised that Chen could be “deceived” by Golden Global, adding that studies show that the higher one stands on the socioeconomic scale, the more susceptible they are to being fooled.
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Cheng Cheng-chien (鄭正鈐) said he was shocked to hear that a company with such little capital was bidding for a project estimated to be worth NT$1.6 billion.
“Just the process of delivery is estimated at NT$90 million,” Cheng said.
KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) called for the Control Yuan to launch an investigation into the issue.
KMT headquarters yesterday held a separate news conference, in which KMT deputy secretary-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that only 3 million people had obtained rapid test kits using their National Health Insurance cards, leaving 20 million people without.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said 100 million rapid test kits have been purchased, but these kits have yet to be delivered to the people, Wang said, adding that Tsai should investigate the issue.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Hsu Hung-ting (徐弘庭) suggested that the government have buyers of rapid test kits sign pledges that the kits are for self-use, and to begin importing test kits approved by the EU and the US.
Allowing such imports on a small scale could allow people to have rapid test kits mailed from abroad, Hsu said.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its