Former Hualien county commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) has been accused of misappropriating NT$5.46 million (US$177,198) from the county’s tax income to hire reporters to write articles, produce videos or take photographs to trumpet his administration’s achievements.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine yesterday reported that a closed tender to create a “media database to promote county government policies,” which had been initiated before Fu was imprisoned for speculative stock trading in September, was sent to 25 reporters from 14 news outlets and TV news stations.
The closed tender was for 25 projects scheduled for last year and this year each promising payments from NT$140,000 to NT$283,000.
Photo: Lin Hsin-han, Taipei Times
Reporters who were awarded the bid were from the United Daily News, the Keng Sheng Daily News, Formosa TV, Sanlih E-Television, Next TV, CTi TV, China Television Co, TVBS, Taiwan Television, ERA TV, ETTV News, Taiwan Indigenous TV, Hakka TV and an online news site, the magazine said.
A leaked audio recording purportedly features former Hualien County Government deputy secretary-general Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉), a close aide of Fu, promising some reporters a monthly payment of NT$50,000 for helping the county government “gather information.”
The payment would be issued directly to them by a “department head” in the county government, Hsieh purportedly says in the recording, adding: “Now this job is between you, me and the department head.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) yesterday at a meeting of the legislature’s Organic Laws and Statutes Committee demanded that the National Communications Commission and the Control Yuan investigate the allegations.
He said he found it difficult to believe that two of the implicated reporters were from Taiwan Indigenous TV and two were from Hakka TV, as these are state-sponsored public broadcasting companies.
“Should the Taiwan Broadcasting System not be held accountable? Should the private media outlets not give society an explanation?” he said.
Hualien County Secretary-General Lee Hsu-ning (李旭寧), speaking to reporters during a visit to the Taichung World Flora Exposition alongside Acting Hualien County Commissioner Tsai Pi-chung (蔡碧仲), called the alleged tender “unfathomable.”
According to law, a county government must announce the winning contractors in a tender within 30 days after the tender is closed, but Fu had withheld the information, Lee said.
It was not until after Hualien Research and Administration Department head Hsieh Ming-hung (謝明宏) took office that the tender was discovered and its contents uploaded to the county government’s Web site for public viewing, he said.
In addition, all the “contractors” were natural persons instead of companies and the projects were contracted out via selective bidding for both years, he said.
Fu’s administration managed tenders as if they were bait, which was inappropriate, as tenders should be demand-driven, he said.
As of press time last night, ERA TV said that it had conducted an internal investigation into the allegations and had no comment at the moment.
Formosa News said the accused reporters had been suspended and would be subject to an investigation.
Hakka TV expressed regret over its implication in the incident, saying that one of the accused reporters had recently resigned after being posted in Hualien for more than 10 years.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS