District prosecutors yesterday were investigating allegations that Bao Shui-sheng (包水生), chief of Sandimen Township (三地門) in Pingtung County, stole products donated to relief efforts.
Villagers reported that products donated to relief efforts were found stored at a retirement home owned by the township chief. A reporter from the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) went to the retirement home and found boxes of diapers for adults and bags of rice apparently donated to victims of the typhoon from a Buddhist organization.
When Wu Wen-chung (吳文正), chief prosecutor of the Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office, conducted a surprise raid of the retirement home, he found 30 packs of disposable diapers and 90kg of white rice with labels indicating they were donated to help victims of the typhoon.
PHOTO: CHANG TSUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
He also found blankets that may have been donated to the relief effort.
Staff at the retirement home told prosecutors that the products had been donated by an advertiser.
Bao said the staff had written down which organization had donated which goods and were going to deliver them to typhoon victims, Bao said.
He said he had not stolen from the relief effort. The goods at the retirement home were collected and stored by staff at the facility, which he owns, but does not manage, he said.
Bao said he would never steal from the disaster victims and hoped the investigation would prove his innocence.
“If I were really stealing [from the relief effort], I wouldn’t take so little,” he said.
Wu said that prosecutors were investigating whether Bao had stolen the materials, as the retirement home was not housing any disaster victims and the facility — home to around 40 elderly residents — had not been affected by flooding or mudslides.
Wu and other prosecutors questioned the staff and the advertiser who reportedly donated the goods.
The next step was to compare their statements with an inventory of the goods found at the home.
Prosecutors said they were still investigating the case and did not say whether Bao would be indicted on any charges.
Meanwhile, volunteers in charge of collecting and receiving donations urged the public not to donate substandard items to the relief efforts.
In Taichung City, volunteers for the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China said they had received donations of large sacks of moldy crackers that were unedible. Other volunteers said they had to dump boxes of expired vitamin drinks down the drain.
The Red Cross also said some of the donated clothes were too worn-out and dirty to be distributed.
“We are grateful for the compassion shown to the victims but we are asking the public to be mindful that [the disaster victims] ... deserve to be treated in a dignified manner,” said Chen Chien-fu (陳玠甫) of the Red Cross.
Donors should separate and mark their donations clearly on the boxes so volunteers do not waste time going through the items, Chen said.
Donation centers in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Pingtung counties asked the public to hold off donating food and supplies for now while goods are sorted and distributed.
The public can still help by donating money, they said.
Many civic and political organizations helping with the relief efforts, including World Vision Taiwan, the Democratic Progressive Party, the Presbyterian Church and the Taiwan Society said they have more volunteers than they can use at the moment.
Those who want to help with the clean-up can sign up as volunteers and will be called later on.
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