Former vice premier Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) said yesterday that he would be happy to be investigated for allegedly abusing his power and using public funds for diplomatic missions. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁芳) leveled the accusation against him on Friday.
Lin said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs disbursed a total of US$7.55 million for eight diplomatic missions at the request of Chiou when he worked for the National Security Council between 2003 and last year.
He said the ministry gave the money to Chiou without knowing what the diplomatic missions were and that it was unable to assess the performance of the projects afterward.
Lin made the allegations while questioning Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) and Foreign Affairs Minister Francisco Ou (歐鴻鍊) during a session on the legislative floor, vowing that he would quit politics if they were not true.
Lin didn't elaborate on the eight projects or say where the money might have gone, citing the national interest.
Ou said that Lin's allegation was “sort of true” and that he would look into the eight projects.
Lin said that Chiou overstepped his authority in asking the ministry to undertake the projects, which he said were similar to the Papua New Guinea diplomatic funds scandal, in which the ministry was swindled out of US$30 million by two brokers in a mission to push forward diplomatic relations.
Prosecutors are still investigating responsibility in the scandal, in which Chiou has been implicated. He has said that he introduced the two brokers to then-foreign minister James Huang (黃志芳).
Chiou yesterday said he didn't do anything wrong and he welcomed the ministry to thoroughly investigate how he had spent money earmarked for confidential missions.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
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