Taipei is to end a controversial police surveillance camera transmission service contract with a company being investigated for alleged bribery, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday.
On Thursday last week, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Chung-wen (陳重文) was detained and held incommunicado on suspicion of corruption.
Chen allegedly accepted kickbacks from Taiwan Intelligent Fiber Optic Network Consortium (Taifo) to pressure the Taipei City Police Department to increase its budget for the company’s fiber optic network for closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Taipei City Government in 2011, when Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the KMT was mayor, signed a 25-year contract with Taifo to build a fiber optic network in the city.
In 2017 — under then-mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), now chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) — the city signed a subcontract with the company regarding transmission service fees for the city police's network of CCTV cameras.
Since Chen’s detention, Ko has repeatedly accused Chiang of conforming to the city council’s unreasonable budget for Taifo's services, while Chiang’s administration said the budget it proposed was based on the service rate signed in 2017.
In a news conference at Taipei City Hall to promote the Capital Cup WorldSkills Competition, Chiang said he does not know how Ko’s administration negotiated the monthly service fee of NT$2,200 (US$69) for 2M bandwidth per CCTV camera, as the mayor’s office only found meeting minutes documenting the approval of that rate.
Given the controversy over the agreement, he has asked the Taipei Department of Legal Affairs to immediately terminate the contract, he said.
Asked if the city government would investigate and cancel the main 2011 contract, Chiang said that only the 2017 agreement was being terminated at this time.
TPP Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊), who was Taipei deputy mayor in Ko’s administration, said that the budget for the service was NT$460 million in Ko’s last year in office, but that Chiang’s administration proposed a budget of NT$550 million to upgrade to 3M bandwidth for all cameras.
As the 25-year contract could not be terminated, the Ko administration decided against paying a higher fee for increased bandwidth, she said, adding that canceling the main contract could create a gap that could risk information security.
Democratic Progressive Party Policy Research and Coordinating Committee director Wang Yi-chuan (王義川) said that as the contract is worth up to NT$10 billion, the KMT and the TPP should clarify how much of the taxpayers’ money has benefited Taifo.
If Ko keeps claiming that the main contract was unreasonable and that the city council was working in collusion with Taifo, then why did he allow the city to continue signing subcontracts with the company in his eight years in office? Wang asked.
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