Three Kaohsiung city councilors have been indicted for allegedly filing false travel expense claims.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on Thursday indicted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Kaohsiung City councilors Tang Hui-mei (唐惠美) and Istanba Ciban as well as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) colleague, Eteng Ingay, over claims made in 2013.
Kaohsiung councilors are entitled to a subsidies of NT$30,000 (US$986) per person for travel expenses related to economic policy research, but they must submit invoices when making expenditure claims, the prosecutors said in the indictment.
The trio went on a research trip in Pingtung County In November 2013 and later obtained invoices from the Red Tiles Gourmet Aboriginal Cuisine and Mudan Hostel Mansions, even though they did not stay at the hostel or dine at the restaurant, the prosecutors said.
The councilors had acquired the invoices by using third parties to deceive the proprietors, and used the invoices to file false travel expenses claims totaling NT$90,000 even though they had not spent any money at the two places, prosecutors said.
The prosecutors indicted the three for corruption and forging public documents that are injurious to public interest.
The indictments are unwelcome news to the Kaohsiung City Council, which is still reeling from a scandal involving KMT City Councilor Chen Tsui-luan (陳粹鑾), whose conviction of filing NT$30,000 in false travel expense claims was upheld by the Taiwan High Court on Feb. 23.
The Kaohsiung District Court on Feb. 3, 2014, sentenced Chen to three years and eight months in prison for forgery and corruption, and the High Court upheld the verdict and the sentence.
Chen said at the time that she intended to appeal.
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