Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤), a close aide of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), was referred to the Department of Personnel for disciplinary measures after criticism from Taipei City councilors. However, how Hung is to be punished remains unclear.
The Department of Government Ethics yesterday announced that an internal investigation had found Hung responsible for leaking city documents related to controversial city development projects to favored media outlets.
Ko yesterday delivered his first official report to the city council on the controversial Taipei Dome, Taipei Twin Towers, Taipei New Horizon, Syntrend Creative Park and MeHAS City development projects, which were outsourced to private contractors under previous city administrations.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Ko’s report was delayed by 30 minutes due to city councilor protests over Hung’s leaks, with councilors from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) calling for Hung to be fired.
Taipei City Council Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whip Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that DPP councilors were also “suspicious” and “angry” about the city government’s “manipulation” of the media. She called for the city government to establish standard procedures to ensure that city councilors are not, in effect, “stripped” of their rights to requisition city documents, and called for Hung to be disciplined immediately.
In his report, Ko said that he had no prior knowledge of Hung’s actions, adding that Hung’s case was yesterday to be sent to the Department of Personnel for disciplinary measures.
Department of Personnel Commissioner Huai Hsu (懷敘) said that, while a department meeting had resulted in a recommendation regarding how Hung should be disciplined, the department could not openly discuss details until Ko signed off on the recommendation.
Ko reiterated that, in the future, all documents requisitioned by city’s Clean Government Committee would be posted online to resolve the problem of certain media outlets receiving information before anyone else.
In response to city councilors’ questions, Ko added that leakage of the committee’s report on the Taipei Dome case to radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) threatened to “bankrupt” the committee’s credibility, and he promised to initiate an investigation. Chou had posted a draft committee report online prior to its final approval by the full committee.
Department of Government Ethics Commissioner Liu Ming-wu (劉明武) yesterday said Hung was not the only source of the “unprecedented” leak of city documents, which had been occurring since February. Hung’s case was just the first phase of the department’s investigation, he said.
Ko also made controversial remarks about handicapped people in response to city councilors’ demands that Hung be fired, stating that, “it is difficult for handicapped people to find work.”
Hung walks with a staggered limp and was observed exiting the Taipei City Council building in a wheelchair.
Ko apologized for his remark on handicapped people after criticism from Wu, later clarifying that he meant to say he did not feel it was fair to “cut off” Hung without giving him a chance to change his ways.
Hung said that he would handle official documents in accordance with city regulations in the future.
He reiterated that none of the documents in question were secret and that city residents had a right to know their content.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching