Five New Taipei City Crematorium employees were yesterday released on bail of NT$50,000 (US$1,628) each after being questioned about allegations of accepting bribes from private funeral service operators.
The five were summoned as persons of interest after judicial investigators conducted a search over the corruption allegations. Seven private funeral service proprietors were also questioned and released.
On Wednesday, led by New Taipei City Prosecutor Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰), Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption agents and police raided 18 locations and detained the 12 for questioning.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
The New Taipei City Crematorium is a unit of the government-run New Taipei City Funeral Parlor in Banciao District (板橋).
Staff at the crematorium and at public funeral parlors allegedly received regular monthly bribes from private funeral service operators, with the cumulative amount reaching about NT$30 million since the practice started in 2020, Lee said.
Some staff allegedly received about NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 each month, while lower-ranked employees received about NT$3,000 per month, Lee said.
Long lines, procedural delays and local customs and traditions requiring the holding of rituals on certain days after the deceased’s passing have given rise to the illegal practice of relatives or friends of the deceased paying bribes to expedite the process or get ahead of the line for cremation and funeral services, industry insiders said.
The five employees may be charged with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Lee said.
The latest operation is a continuation of a corruption probe that started in January, in which 20 civil servants, headed by a section head surnamed Hsi (席), at New Taipei City’s crematorium and funeral parlor, and 12 private proprietors were detained for questioning.
Hsi was released on bail of NT$200,000, while most of the other staff posted bail of NT$100,000 each, Lee said.
One person who refused to admit to accepting bribes when questioned was given a higher bail of NT$500,000, Lee added.
Prosecutors said that a similar corruption investigation was carried out in Taipei in March last year, and officials at the Taipei Mortuary Services Office were in December that year convicted of bribery, forgery and collusion.
The Taipei District Court handed out a 14-month sentence to Taipei’s former Burial and Cemetery Management Section head Ou Yang Keng-sheng (歐陽更生) and a 16-month jail term for technician Sun Pei-jen (孫佩仁).
Authorities initiated the judicial investigation after receiving public complaints about being asked to give “red envelopes” to bribe officials at the Taipei Mortuary Services Office (台北市殯葬管理處) to facilitate services at either of the two city-operated funeral parlors.
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