Taipei City Councilor Chen Chung-wen (陳重文) was indicted on Friday for allegedly fraudulently obtaining NT$3.21 million (US$98,075) from a government contract.
After several months of investigation, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen, 46, who represents Taipei’s Shilin (士林) and Beitou (北投) districts for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), under the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
The case involves Taiwan Intelligent Fiber Optic Network Consortium (TAIFO), which was awarded a 25-year contract by the Taipei City Government in 2011 to build a fiber optic network in the capital, as part of a smart city project, when Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of the KMT was mayor from 2006 to 2014.
Photo: Chen Tsai-ling, Taipei Times
Recognizing that there were lucrative profits to be gained from TAIFO’s relationship with the city government, Chen and a friend named Kang Li-chi (康立錡) set up a new company last year to partake in the project, the prosecutors said.
Kang was named as its director, although Chen was the real boss, the prosecutors added.
This firm received various contracts connected to TAIFO’s business deals with the city government, prosecutors said.
From April to June last year, Chen pressured the Taipei Department of Social Welfare on multiple occasions to award TAIFO a contract to install cloud-based surveillance systems at the city’s public childcare care centers, prosecutors said.
With the contract awarded to TAIFO, due to Chen’s pressure, the company then subcontracted the project to Kang, who passed it to Vqorder Co, a New Taipei-based company also registered under his name, to carry out the work, prosecutors said.
Through this arrangement, each party involved was able to take a share of the contract, prosecutors said, adding that Chen allegedly made NT$3.21 million in illegal gains through the deal, prosecutors said.
On Friday, Chen and Kang were indicted for corruption and intent to directly or indirectly seek unlawful gains, they added.
Meanwhile, a separate case which began in March involving TAIFO and its supply of surveillance cameras used by the Taipei police is still being investigated, prosecutors said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS