《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ex-Taipei mayor accused of shielding Dome project

COVERING UP? A Taipei City councilor said that Hau Lung-bin had allowed Farglory to oversee itself in relation to the damage it was doing to a historical site

By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

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Taipei City Government records show that the administration of former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin （郝龍斌） intervened to prevent construction on the Taipei Dome from being halted to protect the neighboring Songshan Tobacco Factory historical site, Taipei City Councilor Chien Shu-pei （簡舒培） said yesterday.

Chien — of the Democratic Progressive Party — blamed intervention by the former mayor’s office for damage to the historical site since 2012.

The city’s Department of Cultural Affairs last month announced that it would seek to fine Dome contractor Farglory Land Development Co （遠雄建設） for the extensive cracking in factory buildings caused by the construction of the Dome’s underground parking lot, including dangerous tilting of the factory’s smokestack.

Chien said that internal city documents show that while cracking at the Songshan factory site caused by the construction of the Dome was discovered six times during the Hau administration, the department never fined Farglory or ordered it to cease construction — because of intervention from the mayor’s office.

She added that the department’s three inspections of the site last year were closely followed by separate city meetings chaired by then Taipei City Government deputy secretary-general Wu Kuo-an （吳國安）.

A meeting in June last year overturned a previous resolution by the department’s site investigation committee that ordered a halt to construction, while an August meeting allowed Farglory Land Development Co to take over responsibility for investigating the safety of factory buildings, she said.

Evaluating site safety had previously been the responsibility of neutral business associations.

“The mayor’s office position was that they had ‘over arching concerns,’” Chang Jung-chen （張蓉真） said of the decision not to order Farglory to halt construction. “The Department of Cultural Affairs had no choice but to accept their resolution.”

She added that it was normal for the mayor’s office to intervene in cases affecting a project as large as the Taipei Dome for which many different agencies were responsible. Fining the firm would also have required clear evidence that it had failed to immediately address the damage, she said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES