The Control Yuan voted yesterday to impeach former vice minister of economic affairs (MOEA) Hou Ho-hsiung (侯和雄) for influence peddling, leaking business intelligence and lining the pockets of businessmen during his term in office.
The watchdog body, which is responsible for investigating corruption in government, voted 10-2 to impeach Hou.
In the same case, the Control Yuan voted 7-5 to impeach Chang Yi-min (張義敏), a bureau chief with the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Water Resources Agency, and Yang Shui-yuan (楊水源), a consultant with Taiwan Water Corp.
Hou, Chang and Yang allegedly collaborated to help businessmen win open bids for several infrastructure construction projects so that they could gain illegal profits, said the impeachment motion, which was proposed by Control Yuan members Yu Teng-fang (余騰芳) and Ger Yeong-kuang (葛永光).
Because Hou retired last month, the impeachment decision will not have any direct consequences for him, but it can serve as a warning to incumbent officials dealing with water conservation and related projects, the Control Yuan said.
The impeachment decisions will be referred to the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Public Functionaries for further investigation because Chang and Yang are still working at their posts, the Control Yuan said.
Meanwhile, the Control Yuan members expressed the hope that the Law on Discipline of Public Functionaries would be amended to allow for fines to be imposed on civil servants after retirement once they are found to have been involved in corruption.
Noting that Hou had already retired on June 22 this year, Yu and Ker said it was unfair that civil servants could go into retirement as a way to escape impeachment for breaking the law.
The practice has led to a high level of consensus among Control Yuan members that the Act on Discipline of Civil Servants (公務員懲戒法) should be amended and a “penalty clause” added so that civil servants will not be able to escape responsibility.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS