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Auditors call for probe of embezzlement allegations

A government watchdog yesterday called for an investigation into allegations of embezzlement at the Presidential Office, saying it had received insufficient information to verify the legality of NT$48 million (US$1.46 million) in expenditures from a secret Presidential Office slush fund.

Ministry of Audit Spokesman Wang Yung-hsing (王永興) said documents related to the Presidential Office's reimbursement of expenditures from a "special allowance" fund last year contained irregularities, and had been sent to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office for investigation.

Wang said that about 76.76 percent of the expenditures covered by the fund -- NT$48 million in total -- had not been reimbursed in conformity with related regulations.

"For this reason, we don't agree that the Presidential Office can write off its expenditures in this way," he said.

Wang made the remarks at a press conference organized by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators over accusation that first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) had used fake receipts to mask embezzlement from the fund.

"[The Ministry of Audit] has to ask whoever spent the money give it back, if it is proven that there are illegalities with the reimbursements," KMT Legislator Lai Shyi-bao (賴士葆) said.

The Ministry of Audit began investigating the matter in the wake of accusations of wrongdoing, and ministry officials audited the Presidential Office to determine how it has spent "special allowance" funds and whether it filed its expense accounts accurately earlier this month.

The result of the audit was disclosed as part of a report on the government's financial statements for year 2005, and was sent to the legislature for review yesterday.

According to the report, NT$47.9 million out of NT$48 million was spent last year, among which receipts for NT$24 million were classified and receipts for another NT$12.8 million were deemed unqualified for reimbursement.

The report said the Presidential Office had refused to provide the receipts for the NT$24 million in classified spending on the grounds of confidentiality.

This reason is not acceptable to the Ministry of Audit, Wang said, citing Article 14 of the Audit Law (審計法), which says that government officials can not hide or refuse to provide receipts and other documents when inspected by the Ministry of Audit.

"We applied to the Control Yuan on July 5 to handle this case due to the Presidential Office's violation of Article 14," Wang said.

With regard to the "unqualified" part, Wang said that those receipts simply recorded "consumption," but lacked further details.

He said that this was in violation of the government's budgetary regulations.

KMT Legislator Chiu Yi accused Wu of pocketing cash through reimbursements from fake expenditures, using receipts provided by a close friend, Lee Bi-chun (李碧君).

Chiu Yi said that some of the receipts Lee Bi-chun gave to Wu were from Lee Bi-chun's cousin, Ligi Lee (李慧芬), a Taiwanese fashion designer based in Australia, saying that the receipts were issued by the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taipei.

Apart from the receipts from the Hyatt, Chiu also clamed that Lee Bi-chun had provided receipts issued by The Ambassador Hotel and Sogo Department Store, among others.

"We did find that some copies of the receipts Legislator Chiu provided to us had been used to reimburse expenditures from the fund, but we can't make public the amount, value or people who requested reimbursement," Wang said.

Wang said that further investigation was needed to clarify the matter.

In response, the Presidential Office yesterday issued a statement saying it respected the Ministry of Audit's decision to request a judicial investigation regarding the expenditures.

The statement said that the Presidential Office had followed past practices in filing reimbursement expenses, using receipts that do not specify the details of the expenses.

It said that such practices had been in place since the 1950s, because nearly half of special allowance expenditures were used for confidential purposes.

The Presidential Office said that similar methods of filing had been used in 2004, and the Ministry of Audit had not found fault with the method then, the statement said.

However, in light of the dissatisfaction of the auditors regarding the expense-filing method, the Presidential Office said that it would review the method and make it more transparent in the future.

Additional reporting by Chang Yun-ping
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