The Cabinet yesterday approved an amendment to the Act for Punishment of Corruption (貪汙治罪條例) that would make bribing a public official to speed up the decision-making process a criminal offense.
The amendment states that the punishment for such an offense would be a maximum of three years in jail or a fine of no more than NT$500,000 (US$15,000).
Under the act, those who bribe officials are only considered to have committed an offense when they offer money to an official in order that he or she refrains from properly exercising his or her official duties.
Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) told a press conference that the government would not make the amendment retroactive. Because of the lack of regulations on such bribery practices, former Taipei Financial Center Corp chairwoman Diana Chen (陳敏薰), who was found to have delivered a check for NT$10 million to the former first family in 2004 to secure the position of chairwoman of the Taipei Financial Center, was not indicted.
Meanwhile, the amendment suggested lessening the punishment for those who offer or promise undue benefits to public officials in return for decisions that are seen as a breach of their duties.
Should the amendment gain the support of the legislature, the current sentences for such crimes — imprisonment of no less than one year and no more than seven years and/or a fine of less than NT$3 million — would be cut to a period of between six months and five years and/or a fine of less than NT$1 million.
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