A group of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators who accused the Presidential Office of doctoring its accounts yesterday demanded that the Ministry of Audit disclose the findings of an inspection, but the ministry refused.
"We will send an audit report on the government's financial statement for the year 2005 to the legislature on July 27, and the result of the investigation will be included in the audit report," ministry spokesman Wang Yung-hsing (王永興) said.
The inspection was to determine how the Presidential Office uses special allowance expenditures and whether it is filing expense accounts accurately.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Although Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chou Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had said the accounts of the office's special allowance expenditures should be kept classified, Wang said the ministry would reveal the inspection's result to "an appropriate degree."
Gift vouchers
The ministry began conducting the review on June 28, following allegations that the Presidential Office had faked receipts to prove that it had purchased Pacific Sogo Department Store vouchers used as prizes for the presidential residence's employees at a 2003 year-end banquet.
It was alleged that the office had received them from the first lady Wu Shu-jen (
KMT Legislator Sun Ta-chien (孫大千) made the allegations regarding the Presidential Office's use of vouchers late last month, and implied that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was also connected to the Sogo voucher scandal.
No results
After a one-hour meeting with ministry officials yesterday, KMT Legislator Pan Wei-kang (
"The ministry only told us about the procedure for its review. We feel disappointed and suspect that the ministry might have been asked by the Presidential Office to keep it a secret," Pan said.
KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (
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