Deputy Minister of Culture Vicki Chiu (邱于芸) has been sacked for writing a letter to Minister of Culture Hung Meng-chi (洪孟啟), in which she denied having leaked official documents, the Ministry of Culture (MOC) said late on Friday.
In a media release, the ministry said Chiu’s letter indicated that there are “doubts” about the efficacy of communication between Hung and his deputy and that the letter “ran counter to administrative ethics.”
To avoid difficulties executing the ministry’s policies, Hung on Friday sought and received the approval to relieve Chiu of her duties, the media release said.
Chiu late on Friday issued a statement in which she reiterated that she was not the official who talked to reporters regarding a ministry discussion in May about the possibility of making payments to lawmakers affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the guise of subsidies in exchange for their support of the ministry’s budget proposal.
There had been rumors she was the source of the leak and she was unable to secure the assistance of other officials in the ministry to clear her name, so she wrote a letter to defend herself, Chiu said.
The daughter of media tycoon Chiu Fu-sheng (邱復生) and a former college assistant professor who received a doctorate from Cambridge University, Vicki Chiu said the decision to fire her from the post she was appointed to in January was “unfair and regrettable.”
She said she “would still like to give my superiors a present,” suggesting that she does not plan to contest the decision.
The controversy over the ministry’s alleged misuse of government funds stems from September last year, when a report in Next Magazine alleged that the ministry attempted to secure budget approval by offering KMT lawmakers NT$2.5 million (US$76,911) each in return for their support.
Hung offered to resign over the controversy, but his offer was turned down on Sept. 30 last year by Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) and the focus of the issue soon turned to the source of the magazine’s purported information.
The ministry said in its Friday media release that it is working with the ethics department and the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption in an investigation into matter.
In an update published on Friday, Next Magazine cited Ministry of Culture officials as telling investigators that the idea of paying KMT lawmakers for their approval of its budget was just a proposal raised during a meeting of top officials that was never adopted.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS