Ex-officials living on state expense

Many retired ranking government officials have illegally occupied state-owned residences, some of which are located in expensive downtown Taipei areas, DPP lawmakers said yesterday.

DPP Legislators Yeong-jen (邱永仁) and Shieh Ming-yuan (謝明源) held a joint news conference yesterday in which they urged the government to immediately take back those properties.

According to the pair, some of the illegal occupants are former police heads, judges, military chiefs and Cabinet ministers.

"It is shameful that these retired officials who enjoyed many privileges while in office have refused to vacate public properties after their retirement," Shieh said.

Former commissioners of Tai-wan's Provincial Police Administration, Hu Wu-hsi (胡務熙) and Wang Yi-fei (王一飛), have yet to return their official residences on Roosevelt Rd and Lingyi St respectively, he noted.

The land on which the former residence is located is valued at over NT$150 million and the latter at NT$36 million, the lawmaker cited official statistics as saying.

Altogether, 2,837 public residences have been illegally occupied, some of them used by the surviving family members or private servants of former government officials.

Chen Pi (陳璧), another former commissioner of the Taiwan Provincial Police Administration, has illegally occupied two public residences on Chungsan North Rd, Chiu pointed out.

"It is unbelievable that those former law enforcement officers have the nerve to occupy public properties in violation of the law," he said.

Under public-property management codes, government officials must return public residences within three months after they are discharged.

It is not uncommon for the government to seek recourse with the court to regain ownership of public properties.

Former grand justice Wang Chang-hua (王昌華) and former accounting official Wu Chih-lien (吳志廉) continue to occupy three and two public residences respectively, the two DPP lawmakers said.

Though the former has lost his court action in this regard, he has yet to return the residences, of which the combined land value amounts to NT$33 million.

Meanwhile, two former tele-communications director-generals, Chen Yu-kai (陳玉開) and Liu Shih-hua (劉時華), have continued to occupy their public residences on Renai Rd. Both residences are valued at NT$14 million.

Retired military generals Sun Cheng (孫震) and Wang Ling-chi (王陵基) also failed to vacate their official residences worth tens of million of NT dollars.

"The National Property Bureau is also to blame for the situation, as it has been inactive in dealing with the issue," Chiu said.

He noted that because of the bureau's inaction, one occupant was able to lease a public residence to a noodle shop owner, even after the court ruled in favor of the government.