Chunghwa Post yesterday said it would conduct an investigation into its National Palace Museum branch after three of its employees were alleged to have been giving incorrect exchange rates to customers who were changing Chinese yuan into New Taiwan dollars.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday reported that three employees at the museum post office were allegedly taking advantage of Chinese tourists whenever they worked together on weekends or holidays.
The three would switch off the screens that show updated exchange rates and convert the yuan to NT dollars at rates lower than the day’s actual rates, it reported.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The newspaper reported that the trio would deliberately not produce a foreign exchange receipt for the Chinese tourist customers.
The nation’s postal service estimated that each of the three employees could have made as much as NT$20,000 in ill-gotten gains during the past few months.
According to Chunghwa Post, the three employees have been removed from their positions and are under investigation by its ethics department.
The state-run firm said in a statement yesterday that its office at the National Palace Museum is one of its smaller branches, but the branch could receive up to 200 Chinese tourists a day on holidays.
The company would investigate whether discrepancies were caused by human error, it said.
Chunghwa Post chairman Oliver Yu (游芳來) said finding out whether employees had engaged in illegal actions required an investigation.
However, Yu said that it was simply unacceptable if the employees turned off the exchange rate screen or failed to produce exchange receipts because they were too busy.
Based on the company’s standardized operating procedures, the employees must turn on the exchange rate screen and convert foreign currencies at the closing prices recorded from the previous working day.
The customers must also receive a receipt showing the exchange rate and equivalent amount of NT dollars.
Company inspectors said they would widen their investigation by randomly reviewing the recorded surveillance tapes at the museum post office branch.
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