Publicly funded “overseas investigative trips” taken by Hsinchu and Miaoli county councilors have sparked public outrage, after copies of their short and malapropism-filled reports were leaked online.
On Tuesday, independent Hsinchu County Councilor Yan Yung-chiu (嚴永秋) became the first politician embroiled in the controversy, after his report for a trip to Europe was posted anonymously on the nation’s most popular online bulletin board system, Professional Technology Temple.
In the report, Yan wrote “southern Europe” as the destination of the 13-day trip and only 42 Chinese characters to describe his research findings, five of which were misused.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
“My passion for public service is not lessened by my lack of education or writing errors,” Yan said in a statement on Wednesday, confirming the report as genuine.
Yan said he had “honestly forgotten” how much the council subsidized of the trip he and his wife took to Austria, Croatia and Slovenia in April last year.
Miaoli County council candidate Tseng Wen-hsueh (曾玟學) of the New Power Party on Wednesday posted on Facebook a list of county councilors who had turned in reports shorter than five lines or plagiarized travel agency brochures or other councilors after taking trips at the county’s expense.
The councilors made up about 90 percent of the council’s roster, he said.
According to Tseng’s documents, Miaoli County Counselor Lee Hsu-chin (黎旭欽) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) wrote that he had “an excellent trip to Australia that was over in an instant, leaving beautiful memories that I have been reliving in the past days” in his report for a trip he took in March last year.
Miaoli County Counselor Hsieh Fang-wen (謝芳紋) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wrote a one-sentence report for a five day-trip to Hainan, China, taken in March last year, saying that the county government “should encourage meetings of Taiwanese entrepreneurs to share their experiences.”
Lee said he had many thoughts that were not included in the report and apologized if the public is unhappy with his brevity.
Hsieh said she had concisely and accurately reported on her trip.
DPP Miaoli County Councilor Chen Kuang-hsuan (陳光軒), who was not among the councilors Tseng named in the post, said that each councilor is permitted up to NT$100,000 for research and observation abroad.
“Councilors should not make unnecessary trips, and when we do travel, we should furnish itemized lists of expenses and return unused funds, or we are wasting taxpayer money,” he said.
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