The Control Yuan impeached Legislative Secretary-General Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山) yesterday over an investment irregularity, but Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said Lin would remain in his job until the Judicial Yuan makes a decision on disciplinary action.
By a vote of 7 to 5, Lin was impeached for violating Article 13 of the Civil Servants Work Act (公務員服務法), which stipulates that public servants cannot hold more than 10 percent of a company’s shares.
Control Yuan member Yeh Yao-peng (葉耀鵬) was assigned to investigate the case after the Control Yuan found in Lin’s property disclosure statement that he held 91.8 percent of shares of an investment company — with an estimated value of NT$23.5 million (US$800,300) — owned by his sister in 2009.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lin admitted to owning the shares when he was questioned by the Control Yuan, but said he did not know that the investment was not legally permitted, Yeh said.
The case was referred to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission under the Judicial Yuan to make a disciplinary decision.
In 2010, Duan Wei (韋伯韜), chairman of Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Co (TTL), was found to have violated the same clause.
He was given a demerit by the commission and stepped down from TTL.
Lin said he respected the decision made by the Control Yuan, adding that he has righted the wrong and told Wang that he would accept any punishment.
Lin is right-hand man to Wang, who appointed him to the position in 1999, after Wang was elected speaker of the legislature for the first time.
The irregularity had nothing to do with acts performed in the course of his official duties and with his personal integrity, Wang said.
“The legislature still needs Lin’s help,” Wang said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS