Members of environmental groups yesterday filed a petition with the Agency Against Corruption, accusing Farglory Land Development Co, related government officials and review committee members of the Taipei Dome construction project of illegal acts during the bidding processes.
In front of the agency’s building in Taipei yesterday afternoon, more than a dozen members of the Songshan Tobacco Factory Park Union, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and environmental activists held a rally to announce their decision to file the petition.
They held up yellow signs that read “government and business colluding to illegally cut down trees,” “the Taipei Dome project is a scandal,” “return trees to the people” and other messages, as they claimed that Taipei City Government officials had been bribed and treated to banquets by Farglory so that it would win the right to construct the Taipei Dome.
Photo: CNA
Songshan Tobacco Factory Park Union director Yu Yi (游藝) said the project had been flawed from the beginning and that the union had collected documentation showing that Farglory had bribed committee members and treated them to banquets during the evaluation, screening and bidding process, the signing of the contract and the environmental impact assessment.
Among the alleged irregularities there had been a sudden increase of NT$2.9 million (US$96,000) found in one of the review committee members’ bank accounts just a month before a critical screening and review meeting, Yu said.
He said that the committee overturned its previous conclusion by refusing Farglory’s proposal to change a subcontractor in that meeting.
Yu said the Special Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office had discovered the cash increase in the committee member’s account, but had not investigated the issue to clarify the source of the funds, so the union hopes the anti-corruption agency will investigate the flow of money to related personnel more thoroughly.
The groups’ documentation containing the possible evidence was handed over to Agency Against Corruption Senior Executive Officer Feng Chun-lei (馮俊雷) by Yu.
Three members of the protest, including Yu, later entered the agency building to make written statements.
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