Watchdog investigates neglect

Members of the state's highest watchdog, the Control Yuan, are launching an investigation into whether the Hualien County commissioner, who was in Taipei while Typhoon Toraji ravaged Taiwan, neglected his duty as the typhoon bore down on Hualien making it the hardest-hit county.

"We are voluntarily initiating the investigation because we have learnt from media coverage that the commissioner, Wang Ching-feng (王慶豐), failed to head the rescue efforts in Hualien," Control Yuan member Lin Chiou-shan (林秋山) said. Lin will conduct the investigation together with his colleague, Ko Min-mou (柯明謀).

At press time last night, local media reported that the typhoon had claimed at least 24 lives in the county, while 37 people were still missing.

The commissioner, a KMT member, was in Taipei for the party's 16th national congress when the typhoon swept through Hualien County during the weekend. The Central Weather Bureau issued a typhoon warning on Saturday morning. The same afternoon Wang left Hualien for Taipei, and did not return until Monday afternoon.

Wang has said that he intended to go back to his constituency on Sunday afternoon but air and rail services had been cancelled.

Under the Disaster Prevention and Relief Act, the county commissioner or his appointed deputy must decide, in the event of a potential disaster, whether to set up a county-level ad hoc disaster contingency center, which the commissioner or his appointed deputy must head.

Such a center was set up in Hualien but the decision-making process behind its establishment and management and the extent to which it was staffed during the crisis will form the focus of the investigation.

"First of all, we need to know whether Commissioner Wang had requested leave and appointed the secretary general [of the county government] as his deputy [to head the disaster contingency efforts] as he has claimed," Lin said.

Second, Lin said, they would investigate whether the deputy, if appointed, had carried out his duties.

The media have reported that from Sunday night through Monday morning -- when the typhoon was causing its most serious damage in the county -- the county's disaster contingency center was empty but for an army lieutenant.

"So we need to know where those officials [who were supposed to meet at the center] had gone, and why," Lin said.

But one of Wang's secretaries said disaster relief efforts had not been delayed.

"The fact that the officials were not in the center did not mean they weren't working," he said.

He said the county government's secretary general, Chung Wen-chin (鍾文欽), had served as the commander of the center on the commissioner's behalf and that the commissioner himself had maintained frequent and effective communication with Chung to keep abreast of the situation.