Kaohsiung prosecutors yesterday indicted Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠), a member of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and her sister, Chang Ying-chi (張瑛姬), on charges of corruption, violating the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法) and leaking confidential information in three separate cases.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office said it suspected that Helen Chang and Chang Ying-chi received more than NT$7 million (US$240,000) from their involvement in the cases.
Chang Ying-chi was a deputy secretary-general of the county’s trade and investment promotion association, a non-profit organization partly funded by the county government.
Photo: CNA
A total of 21 people, mostly contractors and university professors, were also indicted in the case.
Prosecutors said the commissioner was suspected of leaking confidential information to Chun Lung Development Co during the bidding process for the Dapumei Intelligent Industrial Park at the Dapumei Herbs Park in July last year, a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project, in exchange for helping the developer win the tender.
Prosecutors also suspected that the county government’s environmental bureau conducted more than 30 irregular public bids, which cost the county more than NT$100 million.
According to prosecutors, Chang Ying-chi and Chiu Feng-ming (邱豐銘), an official of the county government’s department of overall planning, planned more than 30 environmental projects, while several professors from various colleges are suspected of approving the projects without maintaining a neutral position as members of an evaluation process.
The professors, who are suspected of taking bribes from contractors bidding for the projects, allegedly distributed some of the money to Chang Ying-chi and Chiu.
National Open University’s professor Wu Ming-ching (吳銘圳), Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology professor Lin Jui-min (林銳敏), National Sun Yat-sen University professor Lou Jie-chiung (樓基中) and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology professor Chang Kuo-ching (張國慶) were indicted.
According to the prosecutors, the county government in May last year conducted a procurement project for garbage trucks and recycling vehicles.
The county government allegedly allowed a contractor surnamed Chen (陳) to win the project tender, after which Helen Chang allegedly received NT$1.9 million in kickbacks.
Commenting on the case, the DPP yesterday called for the judiciary to conduct a thorough investigation and not to do Helen Chang an injustice.
“We hope that the judiciary will not handle different cases with double standards and urge the investigators to do their best to seek the whole truth,” DPP spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said.
In line with the DPP’s regulations, Chang would not be reprimanded by the party yet, despite being indicted, Wang added.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS