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
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique