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Culture council may
have rigged bids: DPP lawmaker
‘KING’S MEN’: In the tight-knit council circle,
the head was connected to Stanley Wang, former director of the cultural heritage
bureau, who went to school with President Ma
By Su Fang-hoand Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Former section chief under the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of
Culture) Liu Yung-yi (劉永逸) may have used his position to rig bids on multiple
cultural projects, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Chi-chang
(蔡其昌) said yesterday.
Tsai’s allegations refer to an accusation fellow DPP Legislator Cheng Li-chun
(鄭麗君) made on Tuesday last week that Liu and some companies may have rigged the
bid on the Greater Taichung Cultural Creative Park and other projects in the No.
20 Warehouse, both of which report to the ministry.
Cheng said that some of the companies shared addresses or phone numbers, adding
that one company, the Taiwan International Culture and Creative Foundation, had
registered Liu as its executive officer and the contact person was Luo Yung-kui
(羅永貴), who was also the manager of Roger Moore Culture and Creative, adding that
Liu also doubled as a Taiwan Culture and Creative Development Platform
Foundation board member.
Cheng said that all three companies had participated in the bid for projects in
the park and the No. 20 Warehouse.
Tsai yesterday said that Liu’s instructing professor Pan Fan (潘?), as well as
National Palace Museum chief secretary Chen Huang-hsin (陳煌信), were board members
of the foundation.
That the foundation is using current — and retired — officials, and academics as
board members and bidding on projects from the ministry and the Council of
Indigenous Peoples, is the same way Flavor Full Food Inc operates, Tsai said.
Flavor Full Food Inc, a local sesame oil producer, and Chang Chi Foodstuff
Factory Co were implicated in the recent adulterated edible oil scandal.
The companies had added cottonseed oil — said to cause infertility in men — to
products and allegedly also used the illegal additive copper complex
chlorophyllin.
Tsai asked that the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan and the Agency Against
Corruption look into the case to discover if there was any wrongdoing, adding
that he hoped the investigation would serve to stanch the flow of national
subsidies planned for the development of culture and creativity into the pockets
of bid riggers.
Tsai said that although on the surface the companies had different names, the
registered addresses, phone numbers and contact people were the same.
“Does the Ministry of Culture truly not know? Or is it because they know that
these are the king’s men, so they dare not look into the matter?” Tsai said.
Tsai’s comment about “the king’s men” refers to Liu’s connection to Stanley Wang
(王壽來), former director of the ministry’s bureau of cultural heritage, who was a
member of Liu’s oral defense panel and attended high school with President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Wang was impeached by the Control Yuan for his role in the Jingmei Human Rights
Culture Park art scandal in 2010. The park was set up on the site of a prison
for political and military criminals to be used for a public art exhibit
commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident.
The prison is most well-known for having been where former head of military
intelligence Wang Hsi-ling (汪希苓) was held after his involvement in the Jiangnan
case.
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