Criminal investigators on Tuesday searched 11 sites and questioned 13 people over allegations that state-run oil company CPC Corp, Taiwan inflated the construction budget for the third liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Taoyuan, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The office said it directed the Agency Against Corruption’s Northern Investigation Office and the Investigation Bureau’s Northern Mobile Team to conduct the searches after receiving an anonymous tip on Nov. 11.
The searches were executed with court-approved warrants at locations linked to CPC, CECI Engineering Consultants Inc, and the residences and offices of individuals connected to the case, prosecutors said.
Photo: screen grab from the Huang Chang Construction Web site
Shih Yi-fang (施義芳), a former lawmaker as well as former chairman of CECI, and other people involved in procurement activities were among those summoned for questioning.
Shih and four others were transferred to prosecutors for further questioning and were released without bail early yesterday, with three reclassified as potential defendants.
Local media reported that an audio recording submitted by the anonymous whistle-blower implied that the budget for new outer breakwater construction work at CPC’s Guantang LNG Terminal, part of the third LNG terminal project, rose from NT$9.4 billion to NT$25.3 billion (US$299.9 million to US$807.2 million) after at least four price increases in a short period.
The report said the recording suggested that CPC took the lead in increasing the budget and that the contract was awarded to a company under what was described as the “most advantageous bid.”
CPC said some of its employees were interviewed as witnesses and that matters related to the searches required clarification through judicial procedures.
The company said it would cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS