Officials from former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration yesterday denied accusations that thousands of official documents had yet to be returned, putting them in possible breach of national security protocol.
In a statement last night, the Presidential Office accused officials from Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration of failing to return documents — some classified — to national archives as required by law when Chen’s term ended in 2008.
Reports said 17 former DPP officials had been turned over to the Control Yuan for investigation.
Although the Presidential Office did not provide any names, it is believed that the group includes former president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former Cabinet spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
Another former Cabinet spokesperson, Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), and former minister of foreign affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) were also understood to be included.
All 17 worked at one point in the Presidential Office. The investigation was believed to only be targeting officials above the deputy secretary-general level.
The investigation could have an impact on Su, a Presidential Office secretary-general between 2004 and 2005, who is among three candidates seeking the DPP’s nomination in next year’s presidential election. His campaign office denied the accusation.
“All the documents have been handled according to the law,” Su spokesperson Andrew Wang (王閔生) said. “The documents were not handled by Su personally.”
Presidential Office spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma was “livid” when he learned of the news and demanded that those responsible be dealt with in accordance with the law.
The two-year investigation had found that during the eight years of Chen Shui-bian’s presidency, the 17 senior officials’ offices had received a total of 39,924 documents.
Among them, 25,398 were classified documents from the -Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 13,526 were unclassified. Of the 25,398 documents, 25,334 were missing, while 10,958 unclassified documents were nowhere to be found, Lo said.
It was claimed that Su had taken out a total of 1,649 documents between 2004 and 2005, of which only 156 had been returned.
Lo said the officials could have violated several laws, including the National Archives Act (國家檔案法), the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) and the Decree Governing the Transfer of Documents of Civil Servants (公務人員交代條例).
“To protect the public interest, we cannot tolerate such ridiculous behavior and dereliction,” he said. “We have no choice but to deal with the matter according to the law.”
Contacted for comment, Lin and Chen Chi-mai denied the accusations, calling the investigation a “political move” to influence the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.
“What would I want the official documents for?” Chen Chi-mai asked. “It’s a groundless accusation and political pandering. Every document is traceable.”
Lu’s office said the former vice president had yet to hear of the accusations and could not comment on the matter.
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