A bid-rigging scandal has surfaced over waste disposal contracts at Keelung City Hospital, where a hospital secretary and a staff member are suspected of allowing an unqualified contractor to win the tender — bad news for both the hospital and taxpayers.

• Hospital secretary Lu Shu-hao and staff member Hua Ching-yi knew that Feilong Technology Environmental Protection Co. lacked the Class A waste disposal licence, yet still allowed the company to win the tender late last year.
• The unlawful award gave the contractor nearly NT$1 million in illicit gains, effectively meaning public funds bought substandard services.
• After winning the contract, the company illegally dumped the waste at another firm's premises and then had it sent on to an incineration plant, earning an additional profit along the way.
• More egregiously, this year it dispatched unpermitted vehicles to haul the waste, while having licensed vehicles drive in circles near the hospital to fabricate GPS tracking records and overstate the volume of waste removed.
• The quantity and final destination of some of the illegally removed waste can no longer be traced.

Outlook: The Keelung District Prosecutors Office has indicted eight people under the Anti-Corruption Act and other statutes and has applied for confiscation of the illegal proceeds. The case now moves to trial.