Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) yesterday said that it would soon open a new public tender for the Terminal 3 construction project after discovering a major conflict of interest involving a bidder.
The airport operator on Monday last week announced that a construction team formed by Samsung C & T and RSEA Engineering Corp had passed a second review, and that it would finalize the tender tomorrow by awarding the contract to the team.
However, when examining the team’s tender documents for the last time, the company found that one of the members of its review committee also served as a consultant for the construction team in contravention of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), it said.
Following a consultation with the Public Constructions Commission, the company on Friday last week decided to invalidate the tender and said that it would soon open a new round of public tender for the project after completing administrative procedures.
Many are concerned that the much-anticipated project — which went through multiple rounds of public tenders — could be further delayed due to the latest incident.
TIAC acting chairman Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) yesterday said the company could restart the tender quickly, as the object, budget and time frame for the project remain the same.
“As review committee members know the items to be evaluated and percentage points assigned to them, we might have to redesign our evaluation system,” Lin said, adding that the company might replace the committee members.
The Samsung-RSEA team can still participate in the new public tender, despite contravening the act, but this means the efforts it had put in the previous round had been in vain, Lin said.
The incident would not stop TIAC from continuing with the project, Lin said, adding that it would delay the construction of the terminal by only two to three months.
Based on the timeline laid out by TIAC, the company is to start using the north satellite concourse in 2024 and the main terminal in 2025. The south satellite concourse is to be completed by 2026.
About 7.43 million passengers accessed Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport last year, down from 48.69 million in 2019, Civil Aeronautics Administration data showed.
The dramatic decline in the number of air passengers caused the company to post a loss of NT$1.9 billion (US$66.88 million) last year.
According to government regulations, employees of state-owned companies cannot receive year-end bonuses if the company fails to generate a profit.
“TIAC’s financial losses were caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, over which it has no control. However, the company’s employees have contributed a great deal in containing the outbreak. We would bring up this matter in our meetings with Executive Yuan officials,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese, surnamed Liu (劉), who openly advocated for China’s use of force against Taiwan, would be forcibly deported according to the law if she has not left Taiwan by Friday, National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials said yesterday. Liu, an influencer better known by her online channel name Yaya in Taiwan (亞亞在台灣), obtained permanent residency via marriage to a Taiwanese. She has been reported for allegedly repeatedly espousing pro-unification comments on her YouTube and TikTok channels, including comments supporting China’s unification with Taiwan by force and the Chinese government’s stance that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China.” Liu
FATE UNKNOWN: The owner of the dog could face a fine of up to NT$150,000 and the animal could be euthanized if he cannot show that he can effectively supervise it A pit bull terrier has been confiscated by authorities after it yesterday morning bit a motorcyclist in Taipei, following footage of the same dog in a similar attack going viral online earlier this month. When the owner, surnamed Hsu (徐), stopped at a red light on Daan District’s (大安) Wolong Street at 8am, the dog, named “Lucky,” allegedly rolled down the automatic window of the pickup truck they were riding in, leapt out of the rear passenger window and attacked a motorcyclist behind them, Taipei’s Daan District Police Precinct said. The dog clamped down on the man’s leg and only let go
RSS