Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) inspected the Nantou County government yesterday in a bid to cheer up the staff after its magistrate Peng Pai-hsien (彭百顯) was taken into custody in connection with the embezzlement of donations earmarked for quake relief.
Chang, accompanied by Vice Premier Lai In-jaw (
Chang said he came yesterday to show that the central government is in solidarity with the grass-roots workers in the local government.
As the magistrate's case is now proceeding through the courts, Chang also asked the staff in the county to have confidence in Taiwan's judicial system.
During a raid on the commissioner's office last Monday, prosecutors seized a piece of paper on which Peng had ordered his assistant to destroy account books of a foundation chaired by Peng, sources said.
Prosecutors suspect that around NT$30 million in financial donations from the public to the county government's official quake-relief account had been transferred to the two foundations, the New Nantou Reconstruction and Development Foundation (
On another piece of paper, also seized, Peng ordered his aides to seek the intervention of higher authorities into the investigation of the case, sources said.
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