Taipei Times
Date: Jan 01, 2018
By: Lu Yi-hsuan / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday issued another statement on the bungled passport incident clarifying the number of misprinted copies and the cost of printing, stressing that it was not trying to conceal anything.
The ministry’s statement apologized for misprinting 550,000 biometric passports that mistakenly featured an image of Washington Dulles International Airport instead of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, but said it has not paid the printing cost of NT$220 million (US$7.4 million).
Following the discovery of the mistake, the ministry announced that it would recall 200,000 botched copies and reprint the passport.
However, New Power Party Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Saturday challenged the ministry’s numbers, saying the number of misprinted copies was actually 550,000 more than the 200,000 claimed by the ministry, and the government had to shoulder an estimated loss of NT$220 million. [FULL STORY]