In an unusual move, a nine-member Control Yuan panel yesterday vetoed the proposed impeachment of three former Taipei City Government officials in charge of the city's handling of SARS last year.
The nine members of the closed-door panel overruled three proposals initiated by Control Yuan members Chao Chang-ping (趙昌平), Lee Shen-yi (李伸一), Liao Jiann-nan (廖健男) and Chang Teh-ming (張德銘) to impeach the former director of the Taipei City Health Bureau, Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞), ex-superintendent of Taipei Municipal Hoping Hospital Wu Kang-wen (吳康文) and his subordinate, Lin Jong-ti (林榮第).
mismanagement
The three former city government officials were under investigation by the four Control Yuan members due to allegedly mishandling the situation and not shutting down the municipal hospital that has been suspected as the source of dissemination of the SARS virus.
The Control Yuan members initiated the investigation after they found that Chiou and her two inferiors could face charges of dereliction of duty for mismanaging the infection inside the hospital.
The three former officials need to account for why it took them so long to decide to shut down Hoping Hospital. They also have to explain how the hospital could be sealed off before its administration completed auxiliary measures for hospital personnel and distribution of materials inside the hospital, the investigators said.
The panel however vetoed all of the impeachments during yesterday's hours-long meeting, amid wide-spread rumors that there had been plenty of calls from political dignitaries to lobby for the three officials under investigation.
"As the proposer of the impeachment, I certainly hope to see my colleagues endorse the proposal, based upon our findings.
"But I have to respect the result of vote, since the impeachment panel was a collegiate system," Chao told reporters after the meeting.
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