Minister of the Interior Liao Liao-yi (廖了以) said yesterday that he had asked the ministry’s ethics office to refer an embezzlement case allegedly involving dozens of National Immigration Agency (NIA) officials to the Taipei Public Prosecutors Office for investigation.
Liao made the remark while answering questions from reporters about a newspaper report that said the immigration agency had failed to return a surplus of NT$3.07 million (US$101,000) from an airport computer project to the treasury.
COMPUTER PROJECT
The NIA won a NT$35.38 million project from the National Security Bureau to set up computer systems at five airports — Taipei Songshan Airport, Hsiaokang Airport in Kaohsiung, Shangyi Airport on Kinmen and two airports in Matsu — and link the news systems with the database at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The computer upgrade was part of government preparations for boosting the number of Chinese tourists.
The upgraded system was also intended to help prevent convicted criminals from fleeing the nation.
REWARD SCHEME
A report in yesterday’s Chinese-language China Times said the immigration agency had failed to return the leftover money as required by law when the project was completed at the end of 2006, and used the funds to reward 44 officials, some of whom were apparently not involved in the computer project.
The report said former agency director Wu Chen-chi (吳振吉) and deputy director Wu Hsueh-yen (吳學燕) each received NT$40,000, while chief secretary Ho Jung-tsun (何榮村) was given NT$50,000.
The rewards for other staff members responsible for the project ranged between NT$5,000 and NT$150,000.
The 44 officials are “suspected of having committed collective embezzlement,” the newspaper said.
The NIA deputy director said the agency had received approval from the National Security Bureau to spend the NT$3.08 million to reward officials involved in the computer project and there were no irregularities in how the money was used.
Also See: Minister promises to cut requirement for spousal visas
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift