CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) chairman Derek Chen (陳金德) yesterday tendered his resignation amid mounting criticism over a nationwide blackout on Tuesday.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) has approved Chen’s resignation, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said last night.
Chen’s decision follows Lee Chih-kung’s (李世光) resignation as minister of economic affairs on Tuesday, when a massive blackout hit businesses and households nationwide.
Photo: CNA
The outage was caused by human error during the replacement of power supply system components at a natural gas power plant in Taoyuan’s Datan Township (大潭).
“I tendered my verbal resignation to the premier on Wednesday, but he asked me to clear out doubts [about the incident] before leaving,” Chen told a media conference in Taipei, referring to questions whether CPC or its contractor Lumax International Corp (巨路) was responsible for the power disruption.
Chen said the state-owned refiner had investigated the blackout and shared its findings with the Cabinet earlier this week, as well as offered suggestions for reform.
“As so many people were affected by the incident, I wanted to extend CPC’s deepest apologies to the public and, as the chairman, I have to accept responsibility,” Chen said.
He denied that he was stepping down because of political interference or pressure from the Cabinet.
He also declined to talk about possible candidates for the position, saying he should not interfere with the company’s future affairs.
On Thursday, Chen said that CPC would seek to terminate its contracts with Lumax in the near term.
He said that CPC’s relationship with its contractors has been “too good” for too long, which resulted in flawed maintenance work.
However, at yesterday’s conference CPC spokeswoman Ann Bih (畢淑蒨) said CPC would first discuss contract terms with Lumax to determine responsibility in the blackout.
CPC vice president J.Z. Fang (方振仁), who is in charge of the company’s industrial safety department, announced the results of the company’s investigation into the incident, which he said confirmed what CPC had said earlier.
CPC and Lumax engineers were replacing power supply equipment for a control system at the Datan Natural Gas Power Plant on Tuesday, but forgot to switch the system from automatic to manual mode before starting the work, according to the findings of the 10-member investigation team.
Fang said the misstep caused two valves to automatically close, shutting off gas supplies to six generators, he said.
CPC has not yet made a decision on disciplinary measures, Fang said, declining to provide a timetable.
Additional reporting by Reuters
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘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
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
‘INDISCRIMINATE’: The drastic changes would delay many national projects as well as undermine global confidence in Taiwan’s resolve to defend itself, the premier said The Legislative Yuan yesterday on third reading passed the central government budget for this year, cutting 6.6 percent from the Executive Yuan’s proposed expenditure — the largest in history. The budget proposal, which the Cabinet approved in August last year, set government spending at NT$3.1325 trillion (US$95.6 billion), with projected revenues of NT$3.1534 trillion — both record highs — working out to a surplus of NT$20.9 billion. On Friday last week, the opposition-led legislature voted to cut NT$93.98 billion from the budget’s general provisions. During a 20-hour continuous session from Monday until yesterday morning, they continued to slash the budgets of government agencies,
RSS