Incinerate Hau with Accusations of Corruption

*Yawn* The DPP assault on KMT Taipei Mayoral hopeful Hau lung-bin has gotten into gear with accusations that Hau approved illegal incinerator construction by the Japanese firm Mitsubishi when he was head of the EPA in 2002. Taiwan has scores of incinerators, and many are either illegal, or operate illegally. Beginning in 1981, the government here embarked on a program to develop waste-to-energy incineration on the island, with a goal of 21 such incinerators on the island by 2005. The government also subsidizes ash sold to reuse facilities through cash grants to local governments. There's lots of opportunity in waste here on Taiwan.....

Hau is essentially though vaguely accused of some kind of favoritism:

Wang showed a document issued by the Cabinet's Public Construct-ion Committee to Hau in January and February 2002, in which the committee informed Hau that awarding the bid to Mitsubishi would be illegal, as the government had banned doing business with the Japanese company for a year because of an ongoing dispute with the state-run Chinese Petroleum Co.

Wang added that the committee told Hau that allowing Mitsubishi to construct the project would be illegal unless the EPA could provide proof that it could not any other qualified supplier for the project.

Although there were more than 20 big, legitimate and experienced companies that bid for the project, Hau arbitrarily decided in favor of Mitsubishi, Wang said.

"As a government official ... you should defend public interests," Wang said.

The decision caused a furor back in 2002 when Hau first approved it. From an article dated Feb 24, 2002, in the Taipei Times. At that time, since Hau was working for the DPP administration, he was attacked by the DPP's opponent, the Blue PFP:

Yesterday, PFP legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (謝章捷) criticized the EPA's favoring the Japanese firm, whose right to bid on public construction projects in Taiwan has been suspended by the Cabinet's Public Construction Commission since Dec. 7.

"Why does the EPA open a door to an unwelcome client? Does it mean the company can still do business in Taiwan despite having been blacklisted?" Hsieh told the Taipei Times.

The one-year right suspension of the Japanese firm, Hsieh said, was issued by the commission following the company's unsatisfactory performance in building LNG storage tanks for the Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油).

Hsieh said EPA head Hau Ling-bin (郝龍斌) is the first agency chief to use the right granted by the Government Procurement Act to invite a bid without taking a suspension into account.

Tactically speaking Hau was an excellent choice for the KMT, since his most prominent service to the government came in a DPP administration, meaning that the DPP cannot attack him without making themselves look bad. Brilliant. What was Hau's defense? Hau's defense is: It's Taiwan:

In response, Hau's campaign office said later yesterday that the Taipei mayoral candidate has left the issue to his lawyer, adding that everything Hau did during the bid was done in accordance with the law.

Hau was apparently within the law in ignoring the suspension of Mitsubishi's right to do business on the island. Apparently he had that authority as EPA Chief. Why is Taiwan so corrupt? Because the System gives officials too much power to supersede oversight processes and concentrates too many decisions and decisionmaking powers in the hands of single individuals.

[Taiwan] [KMT] [corruption] [DPP] [PFP] [Taipei] [Hau Lung-bin]