Another major corruption case broke out at the Hsinchu County Public Works Department. Zhang Yuci, the force of the times, bombarded: Never treat it as a case-by-case basis

Power of the Times Zhang Yuci, candidate for Zhubei City East District Council, strongly criticized that a major corruption case broke out again in the Public Works Department in less than two years. The county government must no longer treat it as "case by case" and must immediately establish a stricter supervision mechanism to fundamentally eliminate structural shortcomings! (Photo by reporter Liao Xueru)

An employee named Liao from the Public Works Department of the Hsinchu County Government was suspected of taking advantage of his authority to review construction licenses, usage licenses, and construction applications for real estate projects to long-term accept cash, investment dividends, brand-name bags, and high-end banquets from business owners. The criminal proceeds were as high as 12.94 million yuan. The Hsinchu District Prosecutor's Office today indicted Mr. Liao and a total of seven other people from the business owners in accordance with the Corruption Punishment Ordinance. In this regard, Zhang Yuci, candidate for the Zhubei East District Council of the Power of the Times, strongly criticized that a major corruption case broke out again in the Public Works Department in less than two years. The county government must no longer treat it as "case by case" and must immediately establish a more stringent supervision mechanism to fundamentally eliminate structural shortcomings!

Zhang Yuci questioned that in 2024, a bribery case broke out between employees and manufacturers in the Sewerage Section of the Public Works Department, and a total of 14 people were prosecuted. Now, another corruption case has broken out in the same unit. What is even more shocking is that Liao Nan has established a long-term consideration relationship with the industry since 2015, and even privately uploaded the documents to the system to complete the verification when the documents were not complete. Such outrageous illegal behavior has been rampant for many years without being noticed internally, which fully exposed the serious failure of the county government’s supervision system.

"Whether the case is guilty or not awaits judicial trial, but incidents have occurred in the same unit one after another, and the county government can no longer regard 'cooperating with the investigation' as the only response." Zhang Yuci pointed out that the core of the problem lies in the excessive concentration of review and inspection authority of the Public Works Department and the lack of an effective review mechanism. She questioned that although the county government has formulated the "Key Points for the Transfer of Integrity Risk Positions for Public Servants" in 2024, requiring high-risk positions to be rotated in principle for three years, Liao Nan has served in the Public Works Department for more than 20 years. Have the businesses he handles been included in high-risk positions? Has the rotation mechanism been implemented? The county government must come clean to all county residents.

Zhang Yuci publicly requested that the county government should comprehensively take stock of highly discretionary businesses such as construction licenses, land use licenses, land resources fields and various projects, strictly implement personnel rotation, cross-review and irregular spot inspection mechanisms, and make public review reports and improvement schedules within a time limit, and actively accept supervision from the parliament and the public. She emphasized that clean government must not rely solely on the self-discipline of public servants. The county government must build a firewall through a sound system to avoid the same system loopholes from creating the next corrupt official!