Pan-blue lawmakers yesterday requested that Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) resign to avoid a conflict of interest as prosecutors continue their probe into the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) scandal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛) called on prosecutors to investigate Hsieh's possible role in the scandal, adding that the premier should come forward and explain what he knows about it.
Pan said that while the German firm Siemens was supposed to invest NT$1 billion (US$30 million) in the construction project, she was very curious to know why it put down only NT$500 million.
She also criticized the Presidential Office's investigation report as being "full of more questions than answers" and requested further inquiry into claims that former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (
As Hsieh was the mayor of Kaohsiung when Siemens was chosen to build the trains for the subway system, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said she would like to know what the relationship between Siemens and Hsieh is, as well as between Siemens and Chou Li-liang (周禮良), former director of the Kaohsiung Department of Rapid Transit Systems.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
The limit had been set to encourage the private sector to contribute to the construction of transport infrastructure by investing more than 77 percent of the funding for Kaohsiung's subway construction system.
Under these circumstances, the bidding process should have been regulated by the Government Procurement Act (
The PFP legislator asked whether Chou and Hsieh had teamed up to allow six subcontracts to circumvent the law.
Chang requested Hsieh to respond to his questions as soon as possible and step down to avoid a conflict of interest while prosecutors continue their investigation.
Chang said that he will hand over the information he has obtained to prosecutors and hope that they immediately summon Hsieh and Chou for questioning.
In related news, Deputy Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Ma Yung-cheng (
Ma was defending a report released by the office last week amid criticism that it shed little light on the matter of allegations of misconduct by the former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general.
Ma said the report by the Presidential Office on Chen was an administrative investigation with the aim of determining whether Chen had ordered his subordinates to engage in improper activities.
"The report is aimed at finding out whether Chen has improperly instructed his subordinates to conduct inappropriate conducts," Ma told the legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in response to the question filed by a committee member, KMT caucus whip John Wu (
According to the report, Chen went abroad on four occasions without applying for a leave of absence, and on a further two occasions failed to complete the leave application procedures.
During this period, Chen also allegedly ordered a staff member in the Presidential Office's accounting department to handle his personal financial dealings, including stock transactions.
The staffer also provided her personal account, which Chen used to purchase 180,000 shares of a company on the over-the-counter market.
The report further said that Chen made 18 overseas trips during his stints as Presidential Office deputy secretary-general between 2000 and last year and later as a national policy adviser to the president. He only applied for leave for 12 of those trips.
The six unauthorized trips took place on May 29, 2001, to Vietnam; Nov. 1, 2002, to South Korea; Feb. 27, 2003, to Indonesia; Dec. 6, 2003, to Vietnam; June 9 last year, to Vietnam; and March 17 this year to Vietnam.
Independent Legislator Chiu Yi (
Also at issue is whether the Presidential Office had prior knowledge of Chen's trips and what their purpose was.
KMT legislators Lee Ching-hua (
Ma said he knew nothing about whether or not Chen has a second passport and suggested that Chiu obtain the information from the Bureau of Immigration.
According to Presidential Office records, Chen took leave 17 times while he was deputy secretary-general and eight times while serving as the president's policy counselor, including five trips to Vietnam, two to Thailand and one to Indonesia.
Upset by Ma's attitude, Chiu said that he was helping his "master," apparently referring to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), to "purge the black sheep in the herd."
"I don't think we need your help in this regard," Ma said.
Ma said that "wiretapping, searches, or even looking into the information of bank accounts" is the business of prosecutors and investigators.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS