The investigation into city government leaks is to continue, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, after a close aide was disciplined on Tuesday.
Ko said that, compared with the leaking of city documents by consultant Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤), he was more concerned about how radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻) was able to get her hands on a draft of the Taipei City Government Clean Government Committee’s report on the Taipei Dome project.
Chou posted the document on Facebook prior to the report’s official release.
Chou’s publication of the report went beyond the “merely inappropriate” behavior of Hung, who only leaked documents that were not classified, Ko said.
Ko approved disciplining measures for Hung late on Tuesday following controversy over Hung’s leaking of city documents related to investigations by the Clean Government Committee, on which he sits. Hung received two demerits for his actions, as well as a temporary suspension of his right to participate in regular mayoral office meetings.
The Taipei Department of Personnel said the demerits would be enough to cut the equivalent of half a month’s pay from Hung’s annual bonus, assuming he doesn't receive any additional merits or demerits.
Ko also dodged questions about whether Hung would be removed from the committee, adding that he should at least be allowed to turn in a final report on the Taipei Dome.
While the subcommittee responsible for the Taipei Dome has already issued a report on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) negotiation of contract terms for the project when he was Taipei mayor, an investigation into actions by former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has not yet been concluded.
Ko said that whether there would be a second round of leak-related disciplinary measures would depend on the results of a Department of Government Ethics investigation.
Department of Government Ethics Commissioner Liu Ming-wu (劉明武) said that, while Hung admitted to leaking several documents to select media outlets, it was still unclear who leaked the committee’s report on the Taipei Dome.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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