The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said yesterday that a pharmaceutical company linked to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had been fined for failing to avoid a conflict of interest when selling drugs to Taipei City Municipal Hospital.
Ma Yi-nan (馬以南) was deputy manager of China Chemical & Pharmaceutical Co (中化, CCPC) at the time of the sale, while her brother Ma Ying-jeou was Taipei mayor.
“The China Chemical & Pharmaceutical Co was fined NT$140 million [US$4.1 million] for violating conflict of interest regulations,” Kuan Kao-yueh (管高岳), director of the Department of Government Employee Ethics, told a press conference.
Kuan said that the city government purchased more than NT$90 million in pharmaceuticals from CCPC and another NT$50 million from a CCPC subsidiary in 1998 — during Ma Ying-jeou’s term as mayor.
Citing the Public Officials’ Conflicts of Interests Prevention Act (公職人員利益衝突迴避法), Kuan said the city government should not have had any business deals with Ma Yi-nan’s company.
The act stipulates that companies found to be in violation be fined one to three times the purchase amount.
The accusation first surfaced last February during the presidential campaign when then-Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) team accused Ma Ying-jeou of lying about his role in his sister’s business relations with Taipei City Municipal Hospital.
Hsieh’s campaign team said Ma Yi-nan had been granted sole distribution rights for drugs sold to the hospital.
At the time, Ma Ying-jeou denied the allegation, saying his sister was not involved in selling medicine to the hospital.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday that the president respects the ministry’s decision.
The CCPC said it would appeal the case with the Executive Yuan.
Kuan also said that when Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) served as deputy minister of national defense in 2004, his younger brother Tsai Ming-shiung (蔡明訓) was board chairman of Air Asia, and that the air company obtained a number of procurement projects and military plane maintenance projects from the military worth a total of NT$4 billion.
The ministry fined Air Asia NT$4 billion for the violation, Kuan said.
Kuan said the ministry thinks the act is too strict, and is contemplating an amendment.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday he was “opposed to amending the law for Ma Ying-jeou’s sake.”
If an amendement is needed, it should make the law stricter, not more lenient, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
The nation’s usually punctual high-speed rail system yesterday was hit by major disruptions after all scheduled services were canceled and replaced with three hourly trains offering only non-reserved seating, affecting more than 200,000 passengers. Preliminary findings indicate the disruption was caused by a faulty power module in a track switch control cabinet, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said, adding that as a full system inspection could only be conducted after operations end for the day, a decision on whether normal service would resume today would be announced before the first train departs. During a routine inspection early yesterday, a switch signal abnormality
RSS