Yunlin County Council Speaker Shen Tsung-lung (沈宗隆) resigned yesterday amid an ongoing corruption investigation into NT$26 million (US$806,977) in alleged bribes involving wind farm projects.
A member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Shen headed up a list of five people indicted in late July on corruption charges for allegedly taking bribes from Wpd Taiwan Energy Co in exchange for helping the company obtain licenses to start construction of 640 megawatt wind power facilities along the coast of Yunlin County.
“Please forgive for any shortcomings in the past, when I held the speaker’s office,” he said in his resignation speech. “I am leaving this office, but I will retain my position as a county councilor. We shall still work together here at this council hall. Let us continue to oversee government programs, and push for the construction of local infrastructure projects and industrial parks.”
Photo: CNA
Shen first announced his resignation for “personal reasons” when addressing a council meeting yesterday morning, then afterward told reporters he was stepping down “to reduce public speculation” about the bribery case.
An election for a new speaker is to be held within a month, chosen from the current sitting councilors, the Yunlin County Council said.
To be elected speaker, a candidate must secure the support of more than half of councilors who vote and a minimum of 50 percent of councilors must vote for the result to be valid.
After wrapping up their investigation in July, Yunlin County prosecutors indicted Shen and the other suspects on bribery charges.
They alleged that illicit money passed hands when the project started in 2019, with Shen allegedly demanding bribes from Wpd Taiwan Energy, a subsidiary of Wpd GmbH, a wind farm and solar energy developer based in Bremen, Germany.
Also indicted on bribery charges in the case were Yunlin County Councilor Wang Yu-min (王又民), two executives of Wpd Taiwan Energy, and Chung Ching-lang (鍾慶郎), who prosecutors suspect acted as a middleman.
A court filing said that Wpd cooperated with local businesses in a consortium to build an offshore wind farm, but was met by opposition from local residents, community leaders and some Yunlin County councilors, who held protests and vowed to block the project.
The protests led to the Yunlin County Government rescinding its support for the wind farm project.
Wpd Taiwan Energy said at the time in 2020 that it had difficulty applying for construction permits and operating licenses, putting the project way behind schedule, the filing said.
Company executives allegedly contacted Shen and Wang Yu-min to exercise their political authority to monitor progress and apply pressure on government officials to expedite the approval process and grant the permits needed to start construction, the filing said.
Following the indictment, public prosecutors said that Shen and Chung had admitted to playing a role in the alleged bribery and had handed over all the illegally obtained money.
Wpd Taiwan Energy has been rebranded as Skyborn Renewable Taiwan Co (天豐新能源) in Taiwan as the project operator after the company was taken over by Global Infrastructure Partners, a global infrastructure investor.
The company has said it is cooperating with the authorities on an investigation into alleged bribery concerning the offshore wind project off Yunlin.
Additional reporting by CNA
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its