THSR workers falsified logs, officials say

• By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA

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Eight Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) workers had falsified electric system maintenance records for five years before being discovered, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said yesterday.

Citing a tip to her office, Wang told a legislative meeting that the personnel involved, who have since resigned, were tasked with nighttime inspections under a THSR maintenance unit responsible for Yunlin County.

She asked the high speed rail company to confirm the whistleblower’s story and outline the steps it has taken to ensure that similar forgery of inspection records did not occur in other parts of the railway.

A high-speed rail train is pictured in an undated photograph.

Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times

THSRC president Bob Chen (陳惠裕) confirmed the incident, saying that a local supervisor had neglected their duties, allegedly believing the monthly inspection by dedicated maintenance crews made the nightly rounds redundant.

The company audited the rail network and subsystems after discovering the fraud and found no additional problems, he said.

THSR officials told lawmakers that an internal audit in August found inconsistencies in the maintenance and inspection records of certain personnel in Yunlin, triggering an investigation.

Auditors found that the GPS records of the vehicles assigned to the Yunlin office did not match the inspection reports in the work logs, they said.

When questioned, the employees admitted to fabricating the records and resigned from their posts before the probe was completed, THSR officials said.

The company broadened the investigation into higher-level managers and issued sanctions where necessary, they said.

THSR has conducted seven rounds of safety and legal standard training to improve the professionalism and ethical standards of employees, the officials said.

The company changed the maintenance inspection procedures to establish verification mechanisms for reportedly completed tasks, they said.

Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) said the Railway Bureau monitored the incident and respected the THSR’s handling of the matter.