Prosecutors yesterday said there was no difference between their investigations into President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) handling of his special discretionary fund and that of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Ma's monthly discretionary fund is NT$340,000, half of which does not require independent accounting oversight, but does require the mayor to submit "claim forms" detailing how the funds were spent.
Ma was accused of depositing the monthly NT$170,000 in his personal accounts.
The Pan-blue camp and some law experts questioned that while Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (
Both Hou and Eric Chen are with the Black Gold Investigation Center of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office.
The Black Gold Investigation Center of the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office yesterday said in a press statement that Eric Chen did investigate the portion of state affair funds without accounting oversight, but did not find anything suspicious.
Meanwhile, the head of Tainan District Prosecutors' office Chu Chao-liang (朱朝亮) and a number of prosecutors nationwide suggested the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office convene a meeting soon on making a standard of how to probe the special allowance funds to avoid any chance of having different investigation standards from those applied by Eric Chen when he was probing the "state affairs fund" case.
Eric Chen late last month indicted first lady Wu Shu-jen (
Chu said there are more than 50 individuals, including top level politicians and chiefs of courts and prosecutors' office nationwide, facing investigations into their use of special allowance funds, and that prosecutors need a standard when conducts such probes.
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