Ke Wenzhe. (Picture source: Taiwan Dongsen News Cloud)
China Taiwan Net reported on July 27 that Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe recently angered the Taiwan authorities’ transportation department because of the Keelung light rail plan. He recently used this incident as a warning and asked the city government and bureaus to be strict. When reviewing the budget, "have a plan first and then ask for money." On the 26th, Ke Wenzhe launched an attack on Facebook (Facebook), emphasizing that after taking office as mayor, he must re-establish a political culture of "plan first, budget later", "communication beforehand instead of conflict afterward", and "think slowly, act quickly".
Ke Wenzhe said that he really dislikes the Taiwan authorities’ habit of grabbing bids at low prices and then increasing the budget. He believes that the result of such a large amount of additional budgets after the fact is four words: debts bequeathed to future generations. Therefore, the Taipei City Government must change the bad financial discipline of the past and re-establish three new political cultures: "Plan first, budget later", "Communicate beforehand instead of conflict afterward", and "Think slowly, act quickly".
Ko Wenzhe took the Taipei Metro Wanda Line as an example and pointed out that in the past, the additional budget was NT$18 billion. Except for the legal change that required land to be expropriated at market price, the rest of the additional budget had room for improvement. These include changing the original elevated track to underground after the plan is approved; and poor communication in advance causing the station to be designed and then changed location due to dissatisfaction with local public opinion. "This is how money is wasted."
"Follow the advance notice The principle of "communication replacing conflict after the fact" can avoid the need to change the plan due to conflicts after the plan is finalized, resulting in a significant increase in the budget. Ke Wenzhe emphasized that there should be no more bidding at low prices, and no more hastily approving plans and then adding huge budgets. (China Taiwan Net Lu Jiajing)
