Ten people were indicted on corruption charges by the New Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office on Monday on suspicion of embezzling funds while working on engineering projects at Academia Sinica, the nation’s top research institute.
The indictment said the central figure in the case was Hsieh Chi-yuan (謝繼遠), 64, a senior technician at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Molecular Biology, who is suspected of embezzling more than NT$15 million (US$490,000) in public funds over seven years by skimming off procurement and renovation projects at the institute.
Prosecutors said that from 2006 to 2012, Hsieh colluded with the head of an electrical engineering firm, Ke Jen-po (葛仁勃), in falsifying receipts to over-report expenditure on projects for the maintenance of utilities and installation of new air-conditioning systems. They added that seven other suppliers and contractors were also involved.
Prosecutors said the seven firms have admitted to channelling funds to Hsieh and Ke.
“Hsieh carried out his corrupt practices for a long time. This indicates that there are big problems in Academia Sinica’s internal auditing mechanism. We hope that through this indictment, we can compel all government agencies to review their procedures for the procurement and verification of business contracts; for auditing expenditure; and also enact tighter controls to prevent corruption and other malpractice,” the indictment said.
Hsieh allegedly issued receipts of less than NT$100,000, as this is below the amount required for open tender bids for projects, while other receipts and related documents were supplied by the colluding companies.
The institute would wire the money to the firms, which would skim off 10 percent before transferring the remainder to Hsieh and Ke, prosecutors said.
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