The Executive Yuan’s Committee of Appeal has upheld a ruling that sides with China Chemical and Pharmaceutical (CCPC,中國化學製藥) and a subsidiary against the Ministry of Justice in a procurement irregularity involving one of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) sisters, Ma Yi-nan (馬以南).
The ministry, which lowered the fine for CCPC and its subsidiary from an initial NT$140 million (US$4.38 million) to NT$90 million in October last year after it lost in the first ruling, now has to review the case again following the second ruling, a committee official said on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the rationale for last Friday’s ruling, the official declined to comment.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
In 1998, when Ma Ying-jeou was Taipei mayor and Ma Yi-nan was a deputy manager at CCPC, the Taipei City Government purchased more than NT$90 million in pharmaceuticals from CCPC and NT$50 million from its subsidiary, Chunghwa Yuming Healthcare Co (中化裕民) for Taipei City Municipal Hospital.
The ministry fined the two companies NT$140 million for failing to avoid a conflict of interest.
It decided the deals had violated the Public Officials Conflict of Interest Prevention Act (公職人員利益衝突迴避法) because the mayor’s sister was involved.
The act stipulates that companies that violate the act can be fined between one and three times the amount of the transaction.
In September last year, the Committee of Appeal overruled the ministry, which then reduced the fine.
The two companies, still unhappy with the lower fine, filed another appeal with the committee.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), reported the appeal committee said the ministry had asked that the fine be temporarily rescinded. The ministry also said it wanted the case to be reopened.
Chang Chiu-yuan (張秋源), head of the ministry’s Department of Government Ethics, however, was quoted as saying that the ministry had not made such a request.
Chang said the ministry had sent a statement of defense to the CCPC’s appeal — not a request to rescind the punishment.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators accused the Ma administration of playing with the law by overturning the decision.
“When the ministry announced it was fining the pharmaceutical company linked to Ma’s sister, the media said it had ‘guts,’ but those ‘guts’ lasted little more than a year, and now the ministry has changed its decision to flatter Ma [Ying-jeou],” DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
“The law made a U-turn after encountering Ma,” DPP Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said, adding that the decision blurred the line between business and government.
The DPP said Ma Yi-nan was granted sole distribution rights for drugs sold to Taipei City Municipal Hospital, which has several branches.
Ma Ying-jeou has denied the allegations, saying his sister was not involved in selling medicine to the hospital.
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