A former civil engineering professor has been sentenced to two years in jail for forgery after he was found to have lied about sending qualified personnel to conduct more than 500 bridge inspections in Yilan County beginning in 2018.
In a verdict released last week, the Yilan District Court said the falsified inspections were connected to Wan Qiao Feng Engineering Technology Consultancy, a company founded by former Chien Hsin University of Science and Technology professor Chen Ming-cheng (陳明正) and his former student Chang Tsai-chen (張綵宸).
In 2018, the company signed a NT$11.24 million (US$345,761) contract with the Yilan County Government to conduct safety inspections on bridges in the county, it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen had submitted to the county the information of 11 employees who were qualified to carry out the inspections, as specified in their contractor agreement, it said.
However, due to labor shortages, Chen dispatched 10 other unqualified people to make inspections and falsely reported them as having been carried out by qualified employees in the government’s bridge information management system, it said.
The company submitted falsified data for the inspection of 541 bridges in eight Yilan townships, it said.
As civil engineering doctorate holders, Chen and Chang understood the dangers of sending unqualified people to inspect bridges, it said.
Nevertheless, they chose to do so, endangering public safety, continued to deny any wrongdoing and showed a lack of remorse after being caught, it said.
On those grounds, the court said it found Chen and Chang guilty of forgery and sentenced them to two years, and one year and 10 months in prison, respectively.
The verdict can be appealed.
The Yilan County Transportation Department in a statement said that it has demanded financial compensation from Chen’s company, which it has already replaced with another qualified contractor.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
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
RSS