Ex-officials to be questioned over Twin Towers
By Lauly Li, The China Post
May 14, 2013, 12:10 am TWN
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Taipei City Council's special Twin Towers investigative team yesterday said it had scheduled questioning for eight entities over the project's bidding process.
Among the people and organizations to be questioned will be the former head of the Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS), Richard Chen (陳椿亮).
The questioning will begin next Monday.
The city council's cross-party investigative task force held its third meeting over the Twin Towers bid yesterday. New Party Taipei City Councilor Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯), who heads the team, said the investigation will look into four dimensions of the Twin Towers bid.
Chen said the task force aims to investigate the Twin Towers' bidding process, the standards surrounding investor selection, the bid-review regulation and the events on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22, when the now disqualified bidder, Taipei Gateway International Development Co., Ltd. (TGID, 太極雙星), failed to deposit the required performance guarantee of NT$1.89 billion.
Chen said that next Monday the team is set to question former head of DORTS Richard Chen, TGID Chairman Michael Ho (何岳儒), TGID consultant Lai Shih-sheng (賴世聲), and Da Cin Construction Co., Ltd. (Da Cin, 達欣工程). The consortium lent land to TGID while the firm was tendering its Twin Towers' bid.
The special investigative team will also question the second-place bidder and the third-place bidder regarding last year's bidding process, Chen said.
The team does not rule out the possibility of questioning Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) to clarify details surrounding the bidding process, Chen said, noting however that the team has not yet organized a fixed schedule.
Kuomintang (KMT) City Councilor Yang Shih-chiu (楊實秋) said he received a call from the Investigation Bureau on April 30. Yang said a bureau official told him that in light of respecting the city council's jurisdiction, the Investigation Bureau will not attend city council meetings regarding the Twin Towers investigation.
Yang said the Investigation Bureau told him that they will interview relevant officials in the Taipei City Government and city councilors to clarify their roles in the bidding process.
The Taipei City Government is currently organizing an accreditation agreement that is to be sent to BES. Once the agreement is sent to BES, the firm has 30 days to decide if they will consent to the terms proposed by the city government and sign the contract for the project, according to Taipei City Government.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/n...ficials-to.htm