Acknowledging his office's mishandling of the special mayoral allowance, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday apologized for what he called "administrative defects," adding that he would not resign over the matter.
"Although I knew nothing about it and so far there is no evidence to prove [my staffer] pocketed the money, I still need to shoulder administrative, political and moral responsibility for this blemish ... I offer my sincere apologies to Taipei residents," Ma told a press conference at Taipei City Hall.
Yu Wen (余文), a Taipei City staffer who handled reimbursements for the allowance, was found by the city government last month to have substituted receipts for smaller amounts with personal receipts for larger amounts in a bid to reduce his paperwork.
In an attempt to simplify the reimbursement procedure for amounts ranging between NT$10,000 and NT$20,000 -- usually between 50 and 100 receipts each month -- Yu substituted his own receipts for larger amounts for several of the smaller ones, Taipei City Government Secretariat Director Lee Sush-der(李述德) said.
This was not discovered until prosecutors began investigating Ma's use of the special fund, and as a result 3,754 receipts, totaling around NT$800,000, had been "exchanged" in this way since 2003, Lee added.
Ma acknowledged that the case had damaged both his and the city government's reputations and denied shifting the responsibility onto Yu, while saying that he did not need to resign over the matter.
"We did not shift the responsibility onto him to save ourselves. It's the truth, and the prosecutors are investigating the case now ? I don't think that I should resign because I wasn't directly involved in the matter," he said.
Director of the mayor's office Cheng An-kuo (鄭安國), who supervised the allowance reimbursements, offered his resignation yesterday. This was later approved by Ma.
"The situation began before I arrived at the city government, but I did not discover it and failed to prevent it from having such a big impact on both Mayor Ma and the city government. I feel very sorry and I need to take responsibility for this," Cheng told the media.
Yu, on the other hand, was questioned by prosecutors yesterday after the city government's department of government ethics reported Yu's case to prosecutors on Tuesday.
According to Lee, the government ethics department found all of the original receipts in the basement of the city government and the internal investigation found no evidence that Yu had pocketed any of the money.
The government regulations state that half of the mayor's monthly NT$340,000 allowance requires no receipts, while the other half requires receipts for reimbursement.
Of the NT$170,000 portion of the allowance that required receipts, about NT$80,000 was used for rewarding staff members, and another NT$90,000 was spent on public affairs matters.
Ma said his secretaries, drivers and bodyguards received most of the rewards.
Asked to compare this situation with the alleged use of fake receipts to claim reimbursement from the president's "state allowance fund," Ma said while the president and the first lady collected receipts to cover their own expenses, in the city government's case it was only a procedural blemish.
In response to questions from DPP legislators on the amount of money spent on red envelopes for parties and white envelopes for funerals, Cheng said that in addition to the money paid out for the envelopes, there were other related expenses such as flowers and postage.
Cheng dismissed allegations that Ma had used the allowance for his personal living expenses.
Some of the allowance was used to pay for breakfast for Ma's bodyguards and drivers, who usually get up very early to pick the mayor up from his house, he added.
Prosecutor Hou Kuan-jen (
Another 10 people, including Taipei officials and others were also questioned.
"The eleven were released after questioning," Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office spokesman Chang Wen-cheng (
Prosecutors said Yu, however, had been barred from leaving the country.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
also see story:
Editorial: Different rules for different folks
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would