‘Infiltrated’ capital government fuels leaks: Ko Wen-je

By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter





The Taipei City Government has been almost “completely infiltrated,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday in response to reports of leaks said to have reached Farglory Land Development Co.

Media reports yesterday quoted unnamed sources as saying that Farglory had gained access to the results of the city’s investigation into the Taipei Dome project, enabling it to issue a “full rebuttal” in a news release earlier this month.

Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said that he had leaked nothing and “did not know where the spy was.”

A group of tree-lovers yesterday protests against the construction of the Taipei Dome in front of the Agency Against Corruption in Taipei. Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

City councilors condemned what they described as selective leaks of city documents.

Ko on Tuesday said that some computers in the mayor’s office had been hacked by unknown agents.

The city government announced an investigation into evacuation plans at the Taipei Dome site after controversy over the terms of Farglory’s contract.

Final safety inspection results for the complex are to be announced today.

While Lin yesterday refused to comment on whether the city would require adjustments, on Tuesday Ko said that it appeared that Farglory “would not pass” and would be required to make adjustments, including possibly demolishing the partly finished construction.

Ko yesterday also rejected claims that the investigating committee’s “safety check” had taken only a couple of hours, adding that the report itself would take more than two hours to read.

Lin said that the committee had held 11 meetings, including three with the Dome’s architects.

He said that committee member names and meeting records would be fully publicized today with the report.

Meanwhile, Ko said that new allegations against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in connection with the Taipei Dome should be left to the city’s Clean Government Committee.

The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday reported that recordings had emerged demonstrating city demands that Farglory pay royalties for use of city land had been reversed after a private meeting between Ma — who was Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006 — and Farglory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄).

The report also quoted unnamed sources within the Clean Government Committee as saying that it did not rule out recommending legal action against Ma over potential corruption allegations.

Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶峰) of the Democratic Progressive Party called the city government’s policy toward Farglory “a mess” for focusing on what he called the “false issue” of safety.

Even if the complex passed the city’s safety inspection, it still should not be allowed to operate due to contract breaches, Lee said.