The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office’s Special Investigation Panel (SIP), which came into the media spotlight recently when it indicted former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) on charges of embezzling state funds while in office, said it hopes to strike fear into the hearts of corrupt officials by aggressively investigating major graft cases in the future.
Government officials suspected of peddling influence in connection with major urban renovation projects or construction projects will be the principal targets of these investigations, SIP spokesman Chen Hung-ta (陳宏達) said.
The list of priority investigations will also include high-profile corporate corruption scandals and graft cases involving at least one chief judicial official, one third-trial judge, three second-trial judges and five first-trial judges suspected of taking bribes, Chen said.
The SIP said in a press statement on Tuesday that it would collaborate with the Financial Supervisory Commission and the legislature to uncover major corruption scandals involving senior judicial personnel, public functionaries and corporate executives.
The goal of these anti--corruption efforts is to establish clean government and promote political integrity and accountability, the statement said.
According to Article 63 of the Organic Act of Court Organization (法院組織法), the SIP is authorized to investigate corruption and malfeasance involving high-ranking officials, including the president, as well as economic crimes and offenses against social order.
Cases to be given priority will be those that involve senior officials and judicial personnel, those involving the national interest or those that might jeopardize social order, the SIP said.
Chen said the SIP has 91 ongoing cases, mostly involving high-ranking officials of the former Democratic Progressive Party administration.
In addition to speeding up the probes into those cases, the SIP will also take action against corrupt civil servants and stamp out corporate wrongdoing, he added.
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