Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) yesterday pointed the finger at his own subordinates, accusing nine prison wardens of "forging" prison budget documents to purchase cars for their own personal use.
"Shave yourself before you shave others," Chen said yesterday, citing words from a television advertisement.
Chen said that any malpractice within the justice ministry itself would be rooted out in the war against corruption.
However, the ministry's accounts department said that prison wardens' practices are not necessarily as Chen had alleged.
Chen has ordered related ministry departments, including the accounts department and government ethics department, to carry out an urgent investigation into the matter.
On an official document urging economical use of public financial resources, Chen named nine prisons nationwide where wardens had reportedly "used improper methods to purchase personal vehicles which exceeded normal standards."
"These cars were all imported using forged documents, identified falsely as prison security vehicles in order to evade taxation," the document reads.
"By doing this, [prison wardens] could buy luxury imported cars with budgets sufficient only for buying Taiwan-made 2000cc cars."
According to government regulations, vehicles imported for use by law enforcement agencies are exempt from some car taxes. Cars for prison wardens, however, do not have the same tax-free status.
Chen said he detected the problem simply by reading previous ministry budget proposals.
Deng Guor-terng (鄧國藤), the ministry's chief accountant, was hesitant to support Chen's accusations.
"There could be other circumstances in which public agencies bought cars for use by their chiefs, and it is arguable that these practices are illegal," Deng said.
One of the methods, Deng said, was that a prison, for example, buys more than one vehicle at a time in order to get a discount. Therefore, with the total budget fixed, one of the cars can still be upgraded.
In another circumstance, Deng said, the warden's car may have been bought for personal use but when needed it is also used as a security vehicle.
"Although it may be a flawed administrative practice, it is hard to say that it is illegal," Deng said.
The prisons named by Chen include: Taipei Prison, Taichung Prison, Changhua Prison, Tainan Prison, Mingte Prison, Kaohsiung Prison, Tzuchiang Prison, Tungcheng Vocational Training Center and Yenwan Vocational Training Center.
However, all wardens at the time of the purchase of the vehicles in question -- from 1992 to 1997 -- have since been transferred to other posts or have retired.
Incumbent Director of the Department of Corrections, Huang Chen-nan (黃徵男), was Tainan Prison Warden during that period. He told the Taipei Times that there was nothing illegal in the procurement of his vehicle.
"We bought three vehicles at the same time, including one ambulance, and so got a special discount," he explained. But he declined to comment directly on the justice minister's remarks.
Current Hsinchu Prison warden and then-warden of Tungcheng Vocational Training Center, Wu Shyan-chang (吳憲璋), also said that his car was bought for the purpose of serving as the warden's official car, rather than as a security vehicle.
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