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Ministry's crackdown on corruption not over yet

Prosecutors brought more than 3,500 corruption cases and recovered more than NT$28.61 billion (US$871 million) in dirty money in the period from July 2000 to last month, said the Ministry of Justice yesterday.

"As many as 9,136 individuals were prosecuted in these 3,500-odd cases. Of these 1,916 have been found guilty of corruption," the ministry said yesterday.

The ministry has been engaged in a crackdown on serious corruption since the Democratic Progressive Party took office in May 2000.

The Black Gold Investigation Center under the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office was founded in June 2000 and is in charge of investigating serious corruption and white-collar crimes. It has prosecuted a number of high-ranking government officials and business people, including the First lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) on suspicion of embezzlement of the state affairs fund.

According to the ministry's statistics, those prosecuted include 491 middle/high-ranking government officials, 577 elected officials, 4,427 civil servants, and 3,641 citizens.

Middle/high-ranking officials and elected officials accounted for 11.6 percent of prosecutions, the ministry added.

The ministry said from July 2000 to last month, prosecutors on average indicted 46 cases and prosecuted 117 individuals for corruption each month.

Last month prosecutors brought 55 corruption cases to district courts and prosecuted 181 individuals, showing they have not slowed down their crackdown on corruption, it said.

Vice Minister of Justice Chu Nan (朱楠) yesterday said the statistics showed that prosecutors have made progress in cracking down on "black gold" politics, and the ministry pledged to continue to clean up government.
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