The Control Yuan promised yesterday to investigate Minister Without Portfolio Chu Yun-peng’s (朱雲鵬) negligence in skipping work after accepting an appeal from a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor.
The Chinese-language weekly Next Magazine on Wednesday carried a story and photos of Chu and his girlfriend going out on dates during office hours. Chu, a long-term aide to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), later said the report was true.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) yesterday said skipping work was a violation of Civil Servant Services Act (公務員服務法), and urged the Control Yuan to look into the case immediately.
Hsu said Ma had repeatedly indulged his staff who had made similar mistakes, including former chief of Taipei City’s Civil Affairs Department Ho Hung-jung (何鴻榮) and former director of Taipei City Government’s Research and Examination Department, Chou Wen-tsai (周韻采).
“The Ma administration applies double standards by being harsh on the enemy and soft on his own people. The public, especially civil servants, will not accept such double standards,” she said.
Ho was found to be absent from work in 2005 when a typhoon threatened Taiwan because he was on vacation with his secretary in Bali. He acknowledged visiting Bali with his secretary, but denied having an affair with her. Ho resigned from the position soon after the scandal, but returned to Ma’s team last year to help him campaign during the presidential election.
Chou, meanwhile, was caught doing yoga during office hours in September 2006. Ma, then the mayor of Taipei, originally gave her a written reprimand, saying this was the second-harshest punishment he could give. Chou resigned one week later, saying she did not want her foibles to be used as a tool to attack Ma.
Chou, now an associate professor at Yuan Ze University, said yesterday she had no comment on either Chu’s skipping work or the “oral reprimand” he received.
Control Yuan member Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光) yesterday received Hsu’s report, and said the Control Yuan would investigate.
At a separate setting yesterday, when asked by reporters whether Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) would give Chu any demerits for skipping work, Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) repeated the oral reprimand Liu issued one day earlier.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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