Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that the public is likely unimpressed with Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) on Friday asking prosecutors to investigate National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Chen Ja-chin (陳家欽) over three promotions he approved. Su called on Chen to continue serving in his position steadfastly while waiting for the judiciary to prove his innocence.
Hsu had forwarded a case involving Chen, NPA Department of Human Resources Director Chang Shu-fang (張淑芳), as well as NPA Director-General’s Office coordinators Wu Cheng-chieh (吳正杰), Chu Cheng-tzu (渠正慈) and Wang Wen-chu (王文助), to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
The Ministry of the Interior said that Chen unduly expedited the promotions of Wu, Chu and Wang to their current posts, despite the agency having announced that the candidates would be selected by an open audition.
Photo: Tsai Shu-yuan, Taipei Times
The ministry in its complaint accused Chen of instructing Chang to abet the three in writing false reports about their positions and the exchanges they had as officers to allegedly help them secure the promotions to police officer rank 1, characterized by two bars and four stars, which they would otherwise have had to wait for another five to six years to attain.
Although the prosecutors’ office later on Friday rejected the case citing procedural flaws, it is still under investigation by the Control Yuan and the Agency Against Corruption.
The incident has sparked widespread speculation of a power struggle between Chen and Hsu over the NPA’s staffing.
Asked about the issue, Chen said that all of his actions have been completely legitimate and would withstand public scrutiny.
Su yesterday said he was dismayed by the incident, adding that the public is likely confused and unimpressed by the kerfuffle, especially amid fears over COVID-19.
Su added that the ministry did not inform his aide of the matter until after 8pm on Friday.
Hsu should have spoken to him if he believed that Chen was unfit for his job, so that he could replace or transfer Chen, Su said, but added that Hsu had never spoken to him about the issue.
Hsu claimed to have been too busy to report on the matter, Su said, only to text him the following day saying that he was reticent over the case because he did not want it to follow a direction similar to 2013’s Legislative Yuan wiretapping case implicating then-prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) in leaking information from a judicial investigation to then-president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
However, the ministry’s news release on Friday night conflicted with Hsu’s remarks, saying that it had withheld information to ensure the integrity of the government’s ethics system, Su said.
The principle of secret investigation does not apply to the ministry’s Department of Civil Service Ethics, which is not part of the judicial system, he added.
‘FREEDOM WINE’: Taiwanese are empathetic of Australians, the president said, while lawmakers called on their constituents to drink Australian wine to show their support Taiwan would take action to back Australians at a time when they are “under tremendous pressure,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, as tensions between Australia and China heated up. Taipei and Canberra have been mutually supportive in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in exchanging critical medical materials in the early stages, Tsai said, before chairing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei. Taiwan and Australia are like-minded nations, sharing the common values of democracy, freedom and human rights, while their economic and trade relations have also become close, she said. Canberra has been voicing support for Taiwan’s international
VIGILANCE: From tomorrow all arrivals must provide the result of a PCR test issued within three days of boarding, and the CECC asked people to report anyone who has faked their result The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expects an increase in the number of returning travelers in the coming days, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, adding that the varying qualities of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test reports from other countries is a big concern. Chen, who heads the center, was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a Taiwan Foundation for Rare Disorders scholarship award ceremony in Taipei. “As the global COVID-19 situation is worsening, and with some holidays coming up, there might be an increase in the number of overseas Taiwanese returning to Taiwan,” he
SKIN, ENTRAILS: Placards also dotted the legislative chamber, with slogans such as ‘Oppose ractopamine pork — not US pork’ and ‘Much ado about nothing’ Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday pelted Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) with pig skin and entrails as he addressed the Legislative Yuan on pork imports for the first time since the KMT’s boycott began on Sept. 18. Opposition lawmakers have been demanding an apology from the government for its decision to lift its ban on the importation of US pork containing residues of the livestock drug ractopamine. After Su arrived at 10am for his 13th attempt to deliver a regular policy report, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus moved to change the agenda to accommodate the premier. The motion resulted in cries of
CECC RULES: The autumn-winter COVID-19 prevention program, including mandatory mask wearing in eight types of public venues and indoor facilities, begins today A temporary, two-week ban on Indonesian migrant workers entering the nation is to begin on Friday, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announced yesterday as it reported 24 new imported cases of COVID-19. Twenty of the new cases are Indonesian migrant workers who arrived between Nov. 11 and Friday last week, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. The cases were discovered during a special project on Friday to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on all 939 recently arrived Indonesian migrant workers in centralized quarantine facilities, as the majority of imported cases in the past
RSS