BES Engineering Corp yesterday accused Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) of corruption, claiming its bid for the Taipei Twin Towers (台北雙子星) project is being forced out to make way for contractors the mayor favors.
The Taipei Twin Towers is a major construction project intended to service the future Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT line, connecting it to Taipei’s other train and MRT lines.
The project has been plagued with controversy after the initial contractor, Taipei Gateway International Development Co, was implicated in a series of corruption scandals. BES Engineering was designated as the project’s winning bidder after Taipei Gateway withdrew in November last year.
On Monday, the firm accused the government of setting impossible contract-signing conditions.
In an open letter to Hau yesterday, BES board chairman Shen Ching-ching (沈慶京) called on the city government to sign a contract with the firm “in accordance with the reasonable, legally acceptable terms for contract approval laid out in the investor brochure [during the bidding process].”
If the city refuses to sign such a contract, the firm would be forced to believe that the mayor is pushing out the firm to make way for personally favored bidders, he said, threatening legal action against the mayor.
“We are flabbergasted by the fact that BES is unwilling to sign a contract requiring it to put into writing its previous oral promises,” he said on Friday, adding the firm had previously agreed to the government’s contract-signing conditions.
BES has said that it would seek a court injunction against the government. Hau said that based on precedent, there was no way the firm’s suit would stand up in court, because the city government and BES are still in the process of negotiating a contract.
“I think they’re using this as a means of slowing down the negotiating process,” he said, claiming that BES is seeking to wait out his administration in hopes the next city government would not hold it to previous promises.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with
Taiwan-based publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀) has been sentenced to three years in prison, fined 50,000 yuan (US$6,890) in personal assets and deprived political rights for one year for “inciting secession” in China, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said today. The Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court announced the verdict on Feb. 17, Chen said. The trial was conducted lawfully, and in an open and fair manner, he said, adding that the verdict has since come into legal effect. The defendant reportedly admitted guilt and would appeal within the statutory appeal period, he said, adding that the defendant and his family have
RSS