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Hospital in stock scandal

The Control Yuan proposed corrective measures against Taipei Veterans General Hospital yesterday for mishandling assets in a situation that led to the loss of NT$100 billion in public funds.

The scandal over the hospital's asset management came into the public spotlight last year when Chang Mau-song (張茂松) resigned as dean of Taipei Veterans General Hospital last April over corruption allegations and his involvement in a secret NT$300 million fund called the "Jung-kwang Fund" (榮光基金).

In its report yesterday, the Control Yuan criticized the hospital for failing to report the assets in its Jung-kwang fund to the government in 2002. It found that the hospital had used the hidden funds to make unwise investments, resulting in a NT$100 billion loss.

The report revealed that employees had controlled the fund, with the hospital's former chief secretary Yi Ping-tung (易屏東) single-handedly managing the fund both before and after he was promoted from chief accountant. Under Yi's management, the report found, investments were made haphazardly, without long-term planning, leading to the large loss.

The Control Yuan also proposed corrective measures against the Commission of Veterans Affairs for its clumsy investigation into the situation and its inability to discover the whereabouts of the missing funds.

The commission started its "423 case" investigation into the situation in late April last year to look into rumors of stock speculation by the hospital. The commission was unable to discover the whereabouts of the missing public funds.

According the Control Yuan report, the investigation put together by the commission was shallow and cursory. Yuan members found that the commission based its findings about the case on the testimony of those involved, without further examining account information that could have given them important clues.
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