The Agency Against Corruption asked state-owned Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) to provide more than NT$1 million (US$33,000) in funding for a running event, despite Taipower being under investigation over irregular procurements, a legislator alleged yesterday.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) told reporters that the agency launched a probe in May into procurements relating to the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市). Several Taipower officials were released on bail following a search of company offices.
Huang said the agency had planned to celebrate its first anniversary by hosting a running event on Saturday, but last week it postponed the event in light of a corruption scandal involving former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世).
Huang said that although the event was postponed, she found the agency was still running event ads showing Taipower and Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Co (台灣菸酒公司) were sponsors of the event.
According to expenditure documents for the event, the agency was expecting to spend NT$2.38 million, with the agency and the Ministry of Economic Affairs each paying half of the money, or about NT$1.19 million, Huang said.
Huang said the ministry had approved a plan by Taipower to provide the NT$1.19 million.
Huang asked how the target of an investigation could become a sponsor for the agency, adding that the agency could have decided to go easy in its probe of Taipower because of the relationship.
Agency Against Corruption Deputy Head Yang Shih-chin (楊石金) said yesterday that the agency had discussed hosting the running event with the ministry in January and agreed that each would cover half of the expenditure.
Yang said the agency only launched its probe against Taipower in May, adding that the agency was currently looking into two cases involving Taipower and that it would definitely not go easy on the company if wrongdoing were uncovered.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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