After failing to front up to prosecutors yesterday for questioning over allegations of graft in the construction of an incinerator, Yunlin County Commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味) received a second summons from the Yunlin District Prosecutor's Office.
Some Yunlin County councilors expressed support for Chang yesterday, while environmentalists insist that alleged kickbacks from the project are typical of how public construction projects are handled in this country.
Following a raid on Chang's residence and office on Friday, prosecutors summoned him to appear for questioning yesterday. However, Chang did not respond to the summons and did not appear at the offices of the prosecutors.
Chang's sister, Chang Li-shan (
"Su tried to be an intermediary for the incinerator project but failed. I suspect that the prosecutor's investigation was influenced by the opinions of Su," Chang Li-shan said.
Su, who is believed to be interested in running for county commissioner at the next election, dismissed the accusation.
"It's absurd. I have never known a prosecutor by that name," Su said.
She added that she had opposed the incinerator project for years and had never been involved in land purchases for the project.
Responding to Chang Li-shan's accusation, Yunlin Chief Prosecutor Hung Shao-wen (
He said that prosecutors would continue to ask Chang Jung-wei to appear, and that if he did not eventually show up he would be detained.
In debate at the county council, councilor Cheng Kuo-yi (
Environmentalists said, however, that it was a shame that the project had led to such an embarrassing situation.
"We didn't see any government mechanisms doing a responsible evaluation of the project. The remote location of the Linnei Incinerator made the cost of transporting household waste three times greater than that for incinerators elsewhere in the country," Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) of the Taiwan Watch Institute told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Hsieh said that the environmental impact assessment for the pro-ject was conducted sloppily because no one had asked questions about the project's high unit cost for treating household waste -- about NT$2,100 per tonne.
Hsieh said the Linnei Incinerator was just the tip of the iceberg, because projects with similar problems existed in other jurisdictions. For example, Hsieh said, the unit cost for an incinerator under trial in Taitung County was about NT$2,300 per tonne. The standard unit cost for other municipal incinerators treating household waste is less than NT$1,000.
About 90 percent of the construction of the Linnei Incinerator, the daily treatment limit of which is 600 tonnes, has been completed. The NT$3.3 million project is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
The Yunlin Prosecutor's Office said the investigation into the alleged bribery began in June, when an anonymous Yunlin resident reported that county government officials -- including Chang Jung-wei -- had accepted a sizable bribe.
Since June, eight contractors and officials have been detained by prosecutors in relation to the case.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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
RSS