Control Yuan member blasts report on MOFA

A Control Yuan member yesterday criticized an Executive Yuan report which defended the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handling of the notarization issue surrounding fugitive murder suspect Andrew Wang (汪傳浦).

The veteran Control Yuan member said the Cabinet's investigation was far from complete in the eyes of the four-member investigation team at the government's watchdog organization.

"The report said it's legal and not flawed for the two representative offices to issue notarization papers. It also said it's legal to revoke the issuing of the papers. Don't you find it strange?" said Control Yuan member Ku Ten-mei (古登美) in a telephone interview.

"If everything was done according to standard operating procedures, as is claimed by the Executive Yuan report, why would the ministry bother to rescind the issuing of the papers later?" Ku said.

Ku made the statement in response to the report released yesterday afternoon by the premier-appointed three-member evaluation team led by Minister without Portfolio Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄).

Hsu said after a one week investigation, the team concluded that the representative offices in Geneva and London did not act unlawfully by issuing the papers to Wang in July 2001 and last month.

Hsu also said the team did not consider the foreign minister and vice foreign minister as being negligent in their duties.

The report said the issuance of notarization in this case can be attributed to the handling of consular affairs by the two representative offices directly, with the only direct consultation occurring at the level of the ministry's Bureau of Consular Affairs.

The report added that other fugitives have also applied for similar documents from Taiwan's overseas offices in the past, so Wang had not received any "special treatment" when he applied for the papers.

The report also said the ministry's subsequent revocation of the issuance of the documents was based on "information provided by related Control Yuan members" handling the Lafayette frigate purchase scandal case.

The sources claimed that the legal papers might be used by Wang to unfreeze his bank accounts in Switzerland.

The report then backed up the ministry's decision to revoke the issuing of the paper repeating the ministry's view that the cancellation aimed at safeguarding Tai-wan's national interest.

Investigators in Switzerland have kept Wang's bank accounts, worth around US$140 million, frozen since July 2001.

Investigators suspect the money came from a secret commission given to Wang in 1991 after he played an instrumental role in securing a deal for a French company, Thomson CSF, now called Thales, to build six Lafayette frigates for Taiwan.

Wang has been a wanted fugitive since September 2000 in connection with the murder of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) in December 1993.

Ku was quick to deny that the Control Yuan team had persuaded the ministry to revoke the issuance of the legal papers as suggested by the Executive Yuan report.

Ku said the Control Yuan team is finalizing its own report on the investigation into the handling of the case by the foreign ministry, and planned to make it available "as soon as possible."

Ku also reiterated the "four aspects" in which the team found the Geneva office faulty in handling the case as stated by Control Yuan investigation team leader Chao Rung-yao (趙榮耀) earlier this week.