《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Ko says he is cleaning up Dome mess

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） yesterday fired back at former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin （郝龍斌） of the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） over the controversial Taipei Dome project, saying that Hau’s administration caused the Dome debacle and he is simply “cleaning up the mess.”

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Hau on Friday said that Ko’s plan to negotiate conditions with Farglory Group for terminating the Dome’s build-operate-transfer contract means that the Ko administration is attempting to profiteer on behalf of Farglory due to the large sum of taxpayers’ money the city would likely need to use to compensate the corporation.

Hau said Ko used to criticize large corporations as “eating people alive” for the way they conduct business, but he had now become the one eating people alive.

In response to media queries for comments on Hau’s allegations, Ko recounted the major controversies sparked by Hau and Hau’s predecessor, President Ma Ying-jeou （馬英九）.

“I was not the one who decided to build the Dome. I was not the one who allowed Farglory to greatly increase the development space after the Dome’s design was approved and cause traffic and public safety concerns,” Ko said.

“I was not the one who waived the royalties Farglory is required to pay after the city government spent NT$14 billion [US$432.79 million] to acquire the plot of land and incurred 22 corrective measures from the Control Yuan. I was not the one who delayed reporting to the Control Yuan on the areas corrected,” he said.

“I was not the one who interceded on behalf of Farglory when it was found to have deviated from the construction plan, for which the Dome’s architect’s license was suspended for two years for forging documents submitted for registration,” he said. “Even though I am in hot water, trying to resolve the issues, I did not cause any of this, and the person who caused the trouble is accusing me of negligence.”

On concerns that parts of the Dome’s skeleton have begun rusting away and that it would spark new safety concerns before the city is able to find a third party to take over the construction, Ko said the Construction Management Office would regularly inspect the building during the hiatus to ensure its safety.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES