The debacle over the government's build-operate-transfer (BOT) electronic toll collection project appeared to have spilled over into the political arena yesterday, with lawmakers using the issue as an excuse to brand each other as greedy and corrupt.
The legislature's Transportation Committee yesterday decided to end a policy-briefing session early, and turned the session into an one-hour closed-door meeting between government officials and legislators.
Officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications brought in cases of documents regarding the bidding process for the BOT project to be reviewed by the legislators.
During the closed-door meeting, vocal bickering, screaming and the sound of people slamming things on tables could be heard outside the meeting room from time to time.
People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞), a committee member, said it was inappropriate to convene a meeting on the issue until the MOTC finalized its decision about the ETC system.
"The committee should be a neutral entity," Lee said. "We do not want to influence the process of negotiation between the ministry and Far Eastern, and thus cannot endorse any government policy."
Lee also said that the documents the MOTC brought were not properly sorted out, and the briefing it gave did not provide any new leads for the investigation into the fairness of the bidding process.
The only controversial piece of evidence the ministry showed was a test of Far Eastern's system during the evaluation stage, Lee said. While the evaluation required each candidate's system to have at least a 99.98 percent error-free toll-collection rate, Far Eastern had failed in this respect, with a result close to 99.8 percent.
Lee also said the committee would deliver a special ETC report tomorrow morning, and asked the firm that had helped Far Eastern conduct the highway tests to report to the committee.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers said they had new evidence of a scandal in the bidding process.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chuang-chin (邱創進) said after Chunghwa Telecom started bidding for the ETC system in 2001, Information Technology Total Services (東捷資訊), another potential bidder and a shareholder in Far Eastern -- the eventual winner of the contract -- had filed complaints with the Public Construction Commission. Chiu said the complaints alleged that the bid was rigged to benefit a specific company.
Chiu said that PFP legislators Chung Shao-ho (鍾紹和) and Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) were said to be conspiring with Far Eastern by cutting Chunghwa Telecom's budget.
"We can see from the bulletin that the PFP legislators had raised concerns about a scandal ahead of Chunghwa Telecom's bid. But the problem is why was there a scandal before the bidding had been held?" Chiu said.
"The PFP legislators' concern about the bidding meant that they were acting on behalf of companies that intended to participate in the ETC project," he added.
Both Liu and Chung denied the accusations.
Liu demanded that the two DPP legislators apologize.
He and Chung also filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Prosecutors Office against the DPP legislators, claiming defamation.
