A witness in the corruption hearing of former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Chang Che-chen (張哲琛), former vice minister of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics and current chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) Administrative and Management Commission, appeared in court as a witness yesterday.
"Ma's special mayoral allowance during his time as mayor of Taipei should be seen as his private funds," said Chang, who was summoned as a witness by Ma's lawyers.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
"I handled the government's budgets and accounting for more than 20 years and I believe officials' special allowances should be construed as a `substantial subsidy' (
Chang detailed the common practice by many government officials of applying for and receiving their special allowances and said many officials treated their special allowance in a manner similar to Ma's.
But Chang's argument did not satisfy prosecutors.
"More than just a witness, Chang sounds more like one of Ma's lawyers," Prosecutor Hou Shao-ching (
Hou showed documents taken from government conferences attended by Chang and newspaper reports quoting Chang.
"Before coming in as a witness in Ma's trial, Chang had never argued that the special allowance should be seen as an official's income," he said, adding that the court should therefore not give to much credence to what Chang said.
The former KMT chairman is on trial for allegedly misusing a special allowance fund during his eight years as Taipei mayor. Accused of having embezzled NT$11 million (US$333,000), Ma has admitted to taking some of the special allowance for personal use and said he regarded the funds as part of his income.
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