The Control Yuan on Tuesday impeached Lieutenant General Hu Chen-pu (胡鎮埔), a former Veterans Affairs Commission minister, for misappropriating funds earmarked for employee bonuses when he was director-general of the Ministry of National Defense’s Political Warfare Bureau.
Hu was the highest-ranking military officer to be impeached by the government watchdog in recent years.
The motion, initiated by Control Yuan members Liu Hsing-shan (劉興善) and Chou Yang-shan (周陽山), was passed by a vote of 9-to-3 in a confidential review meeting.
Hu was accused of implementing rules that contravened the Accounting Act (會計法) for a program to award bonuses to subordinates from a fund worth about NT$11 million (US$361,000) from Feb. 1, 2005, to Feb. 16, 2006.
The Control Yuan investigation showed that Hu also apparently collected NT$40,000 per month in the name of award recipients, for a total of NT$320,000.
During questioning, Hu told Control Yuan members that the money had been used to provide meals for the bureau and not for his personal use, but the Control Yuan ruled the practice constituted “malfeasance and irregularity.”
An investigation by the National Audit Office conducted prior to that by the Control Yuan found that Hu used the fund as a special allowance to buy off subordinates. It also said that most documents pertaining to how the money was used had been destroyed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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