A Supreme Administrative Court judge has been impeached for failing to recuse himself from a case in which a company owned by a business acquaintance of his was the plaintiff in a contract dispute against the government.
The Control Yuan said its members voted nine to two on Sept. 14 to impeach Judge Cheng Shiao-kang (鄭小康), who had presided over the case brought by businessman Wong Maw-jang’s (翁茂鍾) company I-Hwa Industrial Co in 2008.
In a statement, the Control Yuan said that Cheng should have recused himself from the trial because he had been socializing with Wong and had accepted gifts from him before the company filed a lawsuit in response to being accused of breaching a government contract.
The relationship between Cheng and Wong was discovered during a Judicial Yuan investigation into corruption allegations against Shih Mu-chin (石木欽), a former head of what is now the Disciplinary Court, and into Shih’s relationship with Wong, the statement said.
Investigators learned that Cheng had dined with Wong at least three times before the judge was assigned to the I-Hwa case, and he had accepted four shirts as gifts, the Control Yuan said.
Following the Judicial Yuan investigation of Shih, the findings on Cheng’s involvement with Wong were provided in April to the government watchdog, the statement said.
The impeachment case will next be sent to the Disciplinary Court, which in June began hearing Shih’s trial.
Under Taiwanese law, Cheng cannot apply for retirement before his impeachment case is heard in the Disciplinary Court, which could decide to either issue a warning or fire him, if he is found to have contravened the rules of conduct.
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