Senior Taoyuan County officials who have been implicated in five corruption and bribery cases over the past three years might deal a severe blow to Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu’s (吳志揚) re-election bid in November, political observers said.
The county is set to be upgraded to a special municipality in December.
In the latest case, Yeh Shi-wen (葉世文) has been dismissed from his position as County deputy commissioner with immediate effect over his suspected involvement in a corruption case, the county government announced on Friday.
Photo: CNA
Wu assumed the post as Taoyuan county commissioner four years ago and has been known for his amiable style, which is in stark contrast to the strict style of his predecessor, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫).
When Chu was commissioner, he took pre-emptive action to deal with allegations of corruption and bribery against members of his administrative team to try to prevent any backlash on the county government.
Before prosecutors and investigators became involved, Chu demanded the resignation of any senior officials implicated in corruption scandals.
Wu, on the other hand, was not aware until Friday, when law enforcement authorities arrived with a warrant, that Yeh was suspected of involvement in corruption.
Yeh has been held in custody over allegations of bribery involving Farglory Land Development Co chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄).
Prosecutors reportedly seized NT$17 million (US$565,000) in cash during a raid of Yeh’s residence and office.
Some of the money was allegedly obtained as bribe money from Farglory Land Development to award the company a county government affordable housing project.
Although Wu took quick action in removing Yeh from his job on Friday, the series of corruption cases involving local government officials has hurt the image of the county government, observers said.
Although Wu a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member holds a significant lead in the opinion polls over the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate, Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), the KMT cannot afford to ignore the effects of the case on the election, political observers said.
The key lies in the county government’s response to the incidents.
A KMT source said that the matter would do little damage to Wu’s campaign because Yeh was deputy county commissioner for one year only and has no particular connection with Wu.
Others believe the case will have some impact on the election, to Cheng’s benefit.
Wu is scheduled to release today, earlier than planned, the results of a county government probe into the allegations that Yeh accepted bribes from Chao.
Wu’s original timing was to deliver his public statement on the results of the investigation after the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
Now, the statement is likely to be made this afternoon, a county government official said.
Wu canceled all public appointments over the weekend and is supervising a screening of all public construction project bids involving Yeh during his nearly one-year tenure with the county, local government officials said yesterday.
Separately yesterday, former DPP premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), who is running in the New Taipei mayoral election, said he had doubts about Yeh’s integrity when Yu served as premier.
Yu said that in 2002, he removed Yeh from his position as director of the Taroko National Park after Yeh was suspected of granting illegal permission to property development on Hehuan Mountain.
“I wonder why those officials who were deemed incompetent during the DPP administration [between 2000 and 2008] were either promoted or rehired under the Ma administration,” Yu said on the sidelines of an activity in Yilan County.
Additional reporting by Chris Wang
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