「Integrity Platform for Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project」 Launching Ceremony Minutes

• Date: March 30, 2022 (Wednesday) at 9:30 a.m.

• Venue: International Conference Hall, 20^thFloor, Railway Bureau, MOTC

• Host: Wu Sheng-Yuan, Director General of Railway Bureau, MOTC
  Record: Lin Cheng-Yi

• Attendees: (see sign-in sheet for details)

• Railway Development & Constructing Better Life (play sand painting video) : (omitted)

• Welcoming speech by Officers and VIPs

1. Welcoming speech by Wu Sheng-Yuan, Director General of Railway Bureau, MOTC

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to join this event, the launching ceremony of Integrity Platform for Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project. There are three highs in this project. First one is high cost. In the past, the Kaohsiung Urban Railway Underground Project has the highest cost of NT$ 99 billion, but the Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project has broken this record with NT$104.7 billion. The second is high risk, and the last one is high difficulties to construct. This project is not as easy as other new construction projects. Many work items could only be constructed at night or after off duty. This is the fate and mission of all staff working for the railroad reconstruction projects. As Director General of RB, I have the obligation to provide a safe working environment for my colleagues. However, during the procurement or construction process, there will be a lot of external interference. Therefore, we take this opportunity to swear to and be witnessed by all attendees, including distinguished guests, judicial units, investigative units, superiors, supervisory and construction company, and colleagues in the organization and show our determination to prevent fraud and complete the procurement process on schedule and on quality without corruption. The openness and transparency is the best preservative.

Through today's launching ceremony of Integrity Platform, justice, prosecution and integrity government departments will assist us in resolving questions related to the procurement process. In the second session, we will have open discussion to all participants to dispel your doubts that you encountered and consult with experts. In addition, Director Guo will show us the contents of Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project with the cost of NT$ 104.7 billion. Then, Director Luo from Public Construction Commission will explain to us what should we be aware of in the procurement process and how to establish a clean image. I believe we will have a successful meeting. Wish you have a good health and happy family.

2. Welcoming speech by Cheng Ming-Chian, Director General of Agency Against Corruption, Ministry of Justice

It is honor to be invited to this launching ceremony today. The Integrity Platform is a concept of Inter-agency collaboration. In fact, the operation of the platform is for everyone to work together, solve problems and eliminate unnecessary troubles by the prosecutor’s office, AAC, investigation bureau, construction commission and other units. It also emphasizes the public-private cooperation and invites construction to provide valuable suggestions. In addition, Director General Wu also mentioned the mechanism of administrative transparency, the Integrity Platform on the website, so public can know about and participate in the progress of projects at any time to reduce unnecessary troubles. We are looking forward to effective participation from citizens and the exchange of opinions in public construction, which can make public construction completed on quality and on schedule without corruption. Finally, I hope that everyone will bring up your problems to discuss and solve them effectively to make important public projects available to the public. Wish you all the best, thank you!

3. Welcoming speech by Huang He-ting, Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications

Hello everyone! This is the 6^thIntegrity Platform established in MOTC. There are 2 integrity platforms for Taiwan Railway Administration, the Train Procurement Project and the Smart Electrical Engineering Project. One is the most famous project, Terminal 3 of Taoyuan International Airport, and another one is Dan-jiang Bridge Project from Directorate General of Highways. The last one is the Postal Logistics Park Construction Project from Chunghwa Post. Today's Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project is also a very important project.

In the past two years, there are big changes in the international situation. There is shortage of labors and materials, and steel prices have risen rapidly with lack of labors. Considering the increase of costs, the public can monitor the government through the Integrity Platform at any time, and the entire project can be legal, reasonable and transparent. We hope this platform can solve the uncertainties and problems to the implementation of the project for both the constructors and the government.   

Questions raised on the Integrity Platform will be answered by experts, and this help us revise our projects continuously. The most important thing is to make civil servants and constructors relieved, and make public confident. As Director General Wu said, the Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project in Taoyuan City with large population will be a very difficult project. Taoyuan Station and Zhongli Station also are the most crowded stations. There will definitely be a period of traffic darkness. Therefore, communication with the public is very important. Released information from the Integrity Platform can help the public understand the traffic plan and let all professionals provide their opinions. All question from our constructors and even our contact can be raised on this platform, and they can discuss and solve together. Finally, wish you all work well and have a happy family, thank you!

• Integrity Platform Launching Ceremony: (omitted)

• Session 1: Introduction for the challenges about Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project Speaker: Guo Lin-Yao, Director of Northern Region Engineering Office Railway Bureau, MOTC. (omitted)

• Session 2:  How to prevent the malpractices of public works and establish a clean image of procurement Speaker: Luo, Tian-Jiann, Director of Public Construction Commission, Executive Yuan (omitted)

10. 「Inter-Agency Integrity, Happy Railways」Forum

Experience sharing by panelists

• Host: Wu Sheng-Yuan, Director General of Railway Bureau, MOTC

After the introduction by Director Guo of the Northern Region Engineering Office about the Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project and Director Luo of Public Construction Commission explain the problems happened in the procurement process. Now, we also would like to invite several experts to share their knowledge and experience. Then, we will let everyone to exchange your opinions in the next session.

• Panelist: Chen Pei-Zhi, Chief Director of Agency Against Corruption (AAC), Ministry of Justice

Hello, everyone! The Corruption Prevention Division of the Agency Against Corruption is the staff unit for Government Procurement Integrity Platform. In addition to the staff unit, I am also a commuter of Taiwan Railway. The changes and development of Taiwan Railway in the past few decades are what commuters like us care about the most. It is my honor to represent AAC to join this event. In 2016, the Executive Yuan instructed the Ministry of Justice to implement a plan to setting up an integrity platform. There are 42 projects have adopted this platform with a total cost more than NT$ 1.07 trillion. There are many benchmarks in these projects, including the Dan-Jiang Bridge Project by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the Wu River Niaozueitan Artificial Lake Project by Central Region Water Resources Office of Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Let me share the benefits of Integrity Platform and how it works, so that civil servants can work at ease and constructors can feel relieved to perform their contracts. First of all, the Integrity Platform is a brand new cooperation method which connect the inspection, integrity, and investigation agencies, and even professional groups could be invited to this platform. It is encouraged to propose all problems to this platform, and everyone from different units or fields could discuss together and let the authority unit make right decision and move the project forward smoothly. Of course, in the process, it is important to let everyone clearly understand details, so we will set up an administration transparency area to disclose information including related meeting materials and records on line, so that the public who are concerned can participate in the supervision. The most important key is the determination from the head of the agency. With such determination in the operation process, the entire agency or agency colleagues in inter-agency collaboration cooperation can be the best support.

Integrity Platform makes major procurements transparent. This is one of the most important indicators to improve our integrity impression this year. It is believed that in the future, this project can be successful by the operation of the Integrity Platform. With inter-agency collaboration, administrative transparency, and public-private cooperation, this project can be completed smoothly on schedule and on quality. These are my brief thoughts, thank you.

• Panelist: Ding Guo-Yao, Director of Department of Civil Service Ethics MOTC

Hello everyone, I am very happy to have this opportunity to share some experiences and impressions for the Integrity Platform in MOTC over the past few years. The first Integrity Platform is the Train Procurement Project by TRA, and there are follow-up the Smart Electrical Engineering Project, the Terminal 3 project of Taoyuan International Airport, the Dan-Jiang Bridge Project and the last Postal Logistics Park Construction Project. These five projects with estimated purchase amount are more than NT$ 10 billion, and today is the establishment of the 6th Integrity Platform under MOTC.

There are 4 key points to the success of the Integrity Platform. The first is Inter-Agency cooperation, which the prosecutor, integrity, investigation and construction commission sometimes can invited other department to joint for special cases in the regular meetings. The second is Public-Private Cooperation, which includes public sector agencies and external manufacturers, supervisors, and even local environmental groups or citizens who are concerned about public construction. The third is Administrative Transparency, which will disclose all information related to the project online. The last one is CCTV, which is also the most concern and the rights from the public to supervise all projects. These 4 key issues can be connected in this platform and help everyone to discover more in projects.

We may have heard of defensive driving. The concept of the Integrity Platform is as same as defensive driving or preventive healthcare. There are 3 key factors to make the Integrity Platform succeed, strong supports from the head of the agency, full cooperation, communication and coordination with all business units and staff units in the agency and the trust and cooperation from the supervisors, constructors and the public. I would also like to conclude with three thoughts, making our colleagues at ease, making constructors and supervisors relieved and making the public confident. I would like to thank to Director-General Wu for his strong support to the Integrity Platform and also thank to everyone for attending this meeting. Thank you.

• Panelist: Luo Tian-Jiann, Director of Department of Planning of Public Construction Commission

Good afternoon! During processes for large procurement, there are some problems everyone might encounter. The first problem is no tender. Although there are factors such as schedule, specifications, etc., the main problem should be the budget. For example, it is necessary to put more resources to shorten the construction period, and this will be reflected to the budget. After our analysis, some of no tender situation may not occur only in the tender stage, but maybe in the beginning of the project. We found that if we didn’t confirm our project precisely in the planning stage, it might lead to no consistency between the budge and the objectives. In the project that we mentioned previously, it is found that nobody knows the facilities and the scale of its construction in the planning stage. The Railway Bureau is a professional engineering agency, so it maybe could handle the problems. For other projects in other agencies not specialized in engineering, we will suggest to commission the planning technical services first. If the project is well planned in the beginning, it will probably be successful. All cost and expense should be considered in the planning stage, and it is also very important to confirm the position of the project in the planning stage.

The second stage is the tender for technical services. Some tenderers will be more eager to do well. If they provide attractive solution but over the budge, they may have better chance to win the project. However, they will claim their price is within the budget plan. This causes the cost may be out of control. Therefore, we should report to Public Construction Commission do something about it.

In the tendering stage, if the budget is not enough, the agency might use the reserve fund or change the plan. In addition, the Director General Wu just mentioned subsequent expansions, which also requires bargaining. Bargaining may not be successful because of the unequal status. Therefore, we have suggested that for those will be done clearly or probably have been designed, we put them into the tender documentation first and specify them as received notice before work starts, which is legally called contract with stop conditions. This could make it clear and avoid difficulties in bargaining later.

Furthermore, back to the actual situation. Sometimes we might think about adopting the most advantageous tender, but some people might joke with the most harmful tender. Let me simply explain the most advantageous tender to you. In the most advantageous tender, we have procurement evaluation committee, and we will disclose our committee members via some mechanics. If there is any question about the members, we can talk about it right away. After the evaluation, there will be a questionnaire to ask the members and authorities to see if these are any problems. Those feedback will be used as a reference for the establishment of our database. This is how we institutionalize committee members. The most advantageous tender is not to disregard the price but to consider other factors besides price. If the price is included in the evaluation, it will account for 20% to 50%. The other method is the price per score, which is the CP value that young people like to talk about. The third method neither includes price in the evaluation, nor the CP value method. However, according to the provisions of the most advantageous tender evaluation method, the score and price must be discussed before deciding the most advantageous tender. Therefore, the conclusion is that the most advantageous tender will definitely consider price and other factors. For large procurement, need to set up working and evaluation group to confirm to adopt the mostadvantageous tenderin tender strategy. These parts will definitely be discussed in the working and evaluation group meeting. Also, according to the Procurement Act, the mostadvantageous tendermust be reported to the superior entity and acquire their approval to reduce the risk.

• Panelist: Kang Hui-long, Head Prosecutor of Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office

Let me give a brief statement on the profits and facilitation under the Anti-Corruption Act. At that time, the concept of the law was weak, strict laws were used to regulate people, but lots of contents were added simply. Like the Anti-Corruption Act, which was a statute in the Period of National Mobilization for the Suppression of the Communist Rebellion, the provisions are simpler. Take the Anti-Corruption Act as example, direct or indirect accusation in Art 6.1.4 and 4.1.5 discourage civil servants to perform their duties. This is also a new problem to solve in administration aspect. If we make the law so blurry, everything will be caught. In 2009, The Ministry of Justice hoped that the Anti-Corruption Act would be repealed and relevant provisions would be added to Criminal Law to rationalize the penalties to address the corruption problem. But because of the people's opinion, the abolition of the death penalty is still in the previous concept and cannot be accepted.

Back to corruption. The situation must be against to the law, such as laws, ordinances, legal authorization orders, administrative orders, rules of self-government, etc. Also, objectively there must be a violation of the law with actual corruption results; that is, one's own part or a third party's partially received or obtained illegally profits. The conditions that constitute Abuse of Public Power for Private Profit are relatively sound and more stringent in terms of the legal system. The civil servants and constructors will be more assured. The Prosecutors Office will also be more careful in dealing with cases. For example, the Abuse of Public Power for Private Profit checklist is used to examine each case individually, and a strict refinement mechanism is required for the prosecutors of the district attorney's office. Prosecutors are now more cautious in their actions when investigating Abuse of Public Power for Private Profit.

• Panelist: Wen Dai-Xin, Deputy Director General of Railway Bureau, MOTC

Just heard Director Kang, the head prosecutor, reported on facilitation and profit, I would like to share two cases and what I have learned. Tung-hai University is located on Chung Kong Road, and there is a very steep downhill outside the campus. There are many car accidents caused by fast speed. When I was serving in the Transportation Bureau of Taichung City Government, I suggested to bring buses into the campus, but my colleagues said that it would not work because it would be beneficial to Tung-hai University. Now, the DRTS or Bus to Campus promoted by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is in full swing because the concept has changed, even the law has not changed. The second case is the surrounding development area when the XiKe station was built. Many people had concerns this will profit some group. However, if it is beneficial to the majority, what should be done should be done quickly.

I would like to share that when we encounter lots of problems, we will be worried and afraid, and this will make the decision delayed. I encourage you to face them confidently because sunlight is the best antiseptic. When I was a supervisor and always afraid to make decisions, seniors taught us to find some experts and scholars to discuss everything and make decisions together. Today's launching ceremony of the Integrity Platform is a start. In the future, if you encounter any problem, you can use this platform to solve them without delay and fear. If we can make good use of this platform, I believe that projects in the future can be done faster and with better quality.

• Panelist: Guo Lin-Yao, Director of Northern Engineering Division, Railway Bureau, MOTC

Let me share one of my experiences. The Deputy Director General Wen just said that the environment has not changed, but I think the environment has changed a little. In the past, there was no Procurement Act, and when I was in Zhonghe City Office in 1991, I was once interviewed because of three quotation issues. Some people say that engineers are blessed if they have never been interviewed. Because of my personal experience, I expressed a strong desire to learn the Procurement Act when available. At that time, we were the first batch of seed instructors, and we took the exam after three days of classes. Now, the environment has become better, and Procurement Act will protect us, so as long as we are familiar with the Procurement Act, I think we can do it boldly.

The other experience is about spoil disposal problem when I was working for the Wan-Rui Expressway Project. It is also very difficult. I worked with the Public Construction Commission to complete the first spoil disposal exchange project in Taiwan, transporting the spoil disposal to National Taipei University. After that, there were some construction plans at National Taipei University. They also solved some problems through the Public Construction Commission. This should also be the concept of the Integrity Platform. These are my experiences.

Exchange of opinions and feedback:

• Question 1: Huang Hong-Zhe, CECI Project Manager

Due to the current shortage of labor and materials in the construction industry, the entire construction price has risen sharply. As a result, many domestic constructors have lower willingness to bid for public works. This may seriously affect the schedule of the Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project. On the other hand, when agency or engineering consultants prepare the budget list for procurement, do they have to refer to other projects or use same items with same types of unit price from previous procurement cases? If the results of marketing are quite different from the previous prices, will using the market conditions to estimate budget become profiting?

• Answer 1: Guo Lin-Yao, Director of Northern Engineering Division, Railway Bureau, MOTC

The quantity and the timing of purchasing are different. It is acceptable to make some adjustments. However, it is necessary to confirm market conditions with sufficient evidences. As long as the information is completed, there should be room for consideration. The division will make a detailed report with the bureau to reach conclusions.

• Answer 2: Luo Tian-Jiann, Director of Department of Planning of Public Construction Commission

For individual equipment, if the requirement is allowed by the Government Procurement Act, it is acceptable to purchase with the specification. What we should consider is if it is the only source. Maybe we can search for other supplier providing the same equipment. Moreover, in the tendering strategy, we can purchase equipment with spare parts or ask supplier to provide fixed price during the maintenance period and put the quantity of spare parts for a certain period in this contract.

• Question 2: Chang Jing-Cheng, Assistant Manager of CEC

One aspect of the Integrity Platform is corruption prevention, and the other one focus on the fairness and reasonableness of the contract. There are two interfaces in Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project. The first interface is the Taoyuan Station and Taoyuan Green Line (GC03), and second one is the Zhongli Station and Taoyuan Airport MRT (C001 contract), we are contractors for the both. The problem is that there will definitely be lots of interface problems in the future for Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project, and there will be countless contract changes. Hopefully, it will be fair and reasonable regarding the contract practice.

• Answer 1: Guo Lin-Yao, Director of Northern Engineering Division, Railway Bureau, MOTC

Taoyuan Airport MRT from A22 station to A23 station, due to the Taoyuan Urban District Railway Underground Project, the underground floors were changed 2 floors to 3 floors. However, according to the terms of the contract, we can only renegotiate the price for the portion of the project that exceeds 30%. We have informed the contractor that any disputes can be submitted in writing for review. We are grateful for the priority given to the completion of the work, and these disputes can be handled by the contract mechanism in the future.

• Answer 2: Luo Tian-Jiann, Director of Department of Planning of Public Construction Commission

In my opinion, this is an issue for individual case. The Public Construction Commission has a mechanism for administrative consultation to help those issues, if there is a problem with the interpretation of the contract. I think both parties can agree with which clause to use to discuss.

• Question 3: Chang Yin-Jun, Sales Manager of Siemens Mobility GmbH Taiwan Branch

There is another branch of the MEP system, and that is public information security. The Information Security Law has been implemented since 2018. Now, the requirement is increasing. However, public information security is highly related to the original hardware equipment and communication protocols, so the whole tendering process is more special. It is a kind of service derived from the original factory. I would like to hear from you about how the tender process will be executed in the future for this product line.

• Answer 1: Wen Dai-Xin, Deputy Director General of Railway Bureau, MOTC

We also understand that not only information security, but also the central control, on board systems in cars, or other devices, are dependent on the original system manufacturers to provide services. In particular, the Railway Bureau has promoted those systems can be localization, hoping to have some systems developed or replace this system by our local company.

11. Meeting adjourned (12:40 p.m.)