The government yesterday approved the resignation of the nation’s embattled representative to Fiji, Victor Chin (秦日新). Chin has been engulfed in a series of scandals and has lately been criticized for allegedly continuing to draw a salary although he has been staying in Taiwan for the past three weeks instead of attending to his official duties.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson James Chang (章計平) acknowledged yesterday that Chin has been in Taiwan for three weeks, adding that the ministry allowed him to take official leave with pay during an investigation into the allegations about his conduct.
The news that Chin did not go back to Fiji as expected was disclosed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) at a press conference earlier in the day and in a story published by the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Chang denied that there was a link between the report and the approval of Chin’s resignation, saying that Chin tendered his resignation on Friday and that the paperwork was only completed yesterday after Premier Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) signed it.
The newspaper said that Chin had continued to draw a diplomat’s salary although he had been staying in Taiwan. A senior government official at the highest (14th) grade of the civil service receives a monthly salary of NT$145,150, but as a representative, Chin gets twice that amount, as he is entitled to claim various allowances.
Chang said the ministry did not violate any regulations in this regard.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Based on ministry regulations, staff stationed overseas are entitled to draw allowances, and these allowances are only deducted from their wages when they return and stay in the country for more than one month, Chang said.
During his return to Taipei late last month for a vacation, Chin was forced to explain himself amid a series of allegations, including an affair with a woman who worked at the Japanese embassy in Fiji, using public money to pay for their dates and to buy her a pearl necklace, and illegally claiming dependent benefits and education allowance for his child.
Chin called a press conference on June 29 in which he denied all the allegations. He also said he would cut short his vacation and fly back to Fiji “to repair damaged relations” after his then-deputy, Leon Liu (劉壽軒), admitted sexually harassing a Fijian employee.
Although the ministry formed a task force to look into the allegations against Chin, it also voiced its support for the envoy when several DPP lawmakers demanded that he be suspended during the investigation and for him to remain in Taiwan.
At a press conference held on the same day that Chin took a flight back to Fiji, James Tien (田中光), director-general of the ministry’s Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said Chin could come back to Taiwan any time the task force needed him.
Yesterday, Chang confirmed that Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) asked Chin to return to Taiwan when Chin made a stopover in Seoul on his way back to Fiji.
“Minister Yang made a phone call to Chin when he arrived in Seoul and told him that he needed to come back to cooperate with the investigation,” Chang said.
He declined to elaborate when asked why the ministry asked Chin to come back.
A ministry official said on condition of anonymity that Chin wrote in his resignation letter that he was resigning to avoid hurting the ministry’s image because of the allegations against him.
Chin could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Chang said the investigation into the allegations was still in progress, adding that Yang had promised to conduct a fair investigation.
The ministry has appointed Chang Ming (張明), who had served as the country’s deputy representative to Nigeria, to replace Chin in Fiji, Chang said.
Gao, who first revealed the alleged misbehavior at the Taiwanese mission in Fiji, said that allowing Chin to simply resign was “unacceptable.”
Chin was already more than two years into a three-year term as the top representative to the island nation and should have faced tougher disciplinary measures, Gao said.
“This resignation, and the fact that ministry didn’t actively seek his departure before, shows that incompetence runs at the highest levels,” Gao said.
“His misdoings are a matter of public record,” Gao said.
Citing telephone and public expense records last month, Gao accused Chin of using government money to pay for upwards of 20 dates with a Japanese diplomat and the twice daily telephone calls.
A US$6,000 pearl necklace was also involved, allegedly at taxpayers’ expense, Gao said.
If he and the media had not reported the matter, the representative to Fiji would have continued his behavior unabated, Gao said.
He also questioned whether a lack of ministry oversight has affected other foreign missions.
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