Pressure was mounting against the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday, over claims that problems have been found with a large number of government contractors that were approved when he was Taoyuan County commissioner.
The latest issue of the Chinese-language Next Magazine stated that 234 government contracts issued for school infrastructure renewal projects in Taoyuan County were mired in some sort of controversy — out of the total 425. Citing information from prosecutors’ offices, the report said that most of the controversial contracts were picked up by a set group of construction companies.
At an election stop, Chu, the mayoral candidate for what will become Sinbei City, said he believed that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had orchestrated a campaign of negative stories in the run-up to the special municipality elections next month. The accusations, he said, lacked evidence and he would welcome an investigation into the case by prosecutors.
“We understand that recently the DPP caucus has been collecting all sorts of statistics and documents in Taoyuan to hand to a number of special media outlets,” he said. “[The DPP] should not engage in underhanded tactics to win the elections.”
Instead, he insisted that the county government’s contracts were handled appropriately.
“Everything fulfilled relevant regulations. Government contracts all have many layers of checks,” he said. “[The accusations] don’t have any meaning at all ... and we will stand up to their test.”
The KMT candidate’s remarks come after the magazine showed no signs of holding back its release of potentially damaging information on Chu’s tenure as Taoyuan County commissioner between 2001 and last year. Last week, the publication wrote that two companies he once endorsed were engaged in allegedly illicit practices.
In the latest report, it said that 59 of the 234 allegedly problematic contracts approved by the county government contained prices that were exactly the same as the government’s unpublicized minimum amount. It also said that in nine of the contracts, the final amount paid was higher than what was allowed under its terms.
Speaking in response to the report, Chu’s opponent, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said she hoped Chu could face up to what she called public concerns. Chu, she said, also needed to make clear his own responsibilities in the controversies.
“It’s not important where the information is coming from. The central issue is whether or not these media [reports] are true,” she said. “We hope that Chu’s campaign can avoid [downplaying] the reports ... he needs to give a complete explanation.”
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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