Four impeached over fishermen's compensation

The Control Yuan yesterday impeached three current and former officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and one official in the Hualien County government for dereliction of duty in improperly awarding two fishermen excessive compensation for losses they incurred when the ministry decided to construct a harbor in Hualien.

The four impeached are the MOEA Vice Minister Yin Chi-ming (尹啟銘), who served as director of Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) under the ministry when the harbor was under construction in 1994, the vice chairwoman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥), who served as vice director of the Bureau at the time, Chang Chuan-chong (張傳宗), a former section chief who was in charge of the case at the IDB and Chao Huo-ming (趙火明), the former director of agriculture department in Hualien County government, now the secretary of the county government.

The investigation report released by the Control Yuan yesterday, states that in 1994, when the MOEA decided to construct the harbor in Hualien to facilitate the import and export of materials by the cement industry, the four men were guilty of sub-standard work when dealing with compensation claims.

The report states that some NT$276 million in compensation paid to two fishermen to cover the loss of two-year fishing licenses, the laying off of 14 employees between them and the enforced retirement of fishing equipment, including boats, was estimated without verification of the items claimed and was of an "obviously inflated" standard. The fishermen were then KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (楊吉雄) and Yu Yuan-chen (游淵琛).

The two fishermen owned two-year fishing licenses, granted by the government, to place fixed fishing nets in the sea at a point so close to the planned harbor that it became part of the construction site. They were entitled to compensation under regulations governing such arrangements.

"The bureau did not follow a standard procedure to inspect, evaluate and negotiate the amount of compensation, but directly approved the amount requested by the fishermen. The whole process of the decision-making is so reckless and obviously with an intention to benefit the two fishermen," said Ku Deng-mei (古登美), the Control Yuan member from the investigation task force.

Furthermore, the investigation report said that the bureau asked Taiwan Cement Corp, which later acquired exclusive rights to use the harbor for importing and exporting, to pay the compensation without giving it any right to participate in any negotiation.

Although the company agreed to pay the compensation, the report said it was not reasonable for the government to ask it to do so.

"It is not reasonable to ask the company to pay the compensation when it had no right to participate in the process over how much they should pay. The four were irresponsible," the report said.

After learning the result of the investigation, Yin said yesterday afternoon that he thought the amount of compensation was reasonable and that he had not violated any regulation. He said that he felt the result of the investigation was unfair.

The four will be referred to the Committee for the Discipline of Public Functionaries for punishment, which will involve either demerits or dismissal.