Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) yesterday said he is “extremely unsatisfied” with the investigation into Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) alleged misuse of National Taiwan University Hospital’s (NTUH) MG149 account.
The probe was conducted by the National Audit Office and on Monday concluded that there was no evidence of unlawful activities connected to the public account at the hospital Ko used to work at.
During a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan earlier this month, Fai urged Auditor-General Lin Ching-long (林慶隆) to examine the account closely or the office’s budget request would not be passed.
The legislator also said the agency was “fooling around and waiting to die,” accusing it of inaction on the issue.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported on Monday that Fai had received an official response from the office stating that after probing the account and its operation from 2007 to August, “no violations of the Accounting Act (會計法) or NTUH regulations by the management of the academic fund were found.”
According to the report, the office said that determining whether unregistered “private accounts” were set up under the MG149 account and donations from pharmaceutical companies made directly to them legitimately did fall within its jurisdiction, which only covers public accounts.
The alleged “private accounts” are now being investigated by prosecutors, the report added.
Fai said that the office was passing the buck, comparing it to a sort of prosecutor for the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, and that in this role, it is most certainly the pertinent authority when someone is misusing government resources at a public institution, receiving illegitimate money and managing it with private accounts.
“This is as if a police officer receives payoffs from [industries such as pubs and hostess clubs] and the office says that it is not its business,” Fai said.
The lawmaker also accused the office of trying to cover for NTUH, allowing the latter to provide its own explanation and adopting it.
Such practise could be considered collusion, Fai said.
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