Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) yesterday voiced support for Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以), calling him a responsible official.
Liao fought back tears at a press conference on Tuesday night when answering questions over reports that an estimated NT$11 million (US$327,000) in consumer vouchers had gone missing at distribution centers on Sunday.
Discrepancies were discovered after an inventory of uncollected vouchers was completed on Sunday night. The exact amount of vouchers unaccounted for has not been announced.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Liao said he would take full responsibility for any mistakes and would resign if the public was dissatisfied. He also said he was willing to foot the bill for any lost vouchers not covered by insurance.
Liu said yesterday the government had distributed more than 90 percent of the NT$85.7 billion in vouchers on Sunday and hoped the minister would not be too hard on himself.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said Liao should not have to resign over a relatively small mistake.
Lo said the government should make up for any losses not covered by insurance it took out for the voucher program, but added that if Liao insisted on paying the sum out of his own pocket, she and some of her colleagues would contribute from their salaries.
Ho Li-tai (何禮臺), chief of Sincheng Township (新城) in Hualien County, also expressed his support for Liao and for the government’s voucher program.
He said he was willing to pay a possible loss of more than NT$10,000 in his township with his own money.
The ministry has said it would make the exact number of missing vouchers public on Friday once tallies were complete.
The ministry tasked local governments with handing out NT$3,600 in vouchers to all eligible citizens and residents at 14,202 distribution stations.
More than 91 percent of people eligible for the vouchers picked them up on Sunday, collecting a total of NT$76.2 billion.
Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers were divided over Liao’s offer to cover the losses.
“I admire him for wanting to shoulder responsibility,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) told the Taipei Times. “But I think distinguishing what’s right and what’s wrong is at the core of this issue.”
He said he believed that “whoever does right should be rewarded and whoever does wrong should be punished.”
“There were more than 10,000 [distribution] centers countrywide, but only a handful of centers had problems,” Huang said. “How is it fair for the minister — rather than those who made the mistakes — to shoulder the responsibility?”
DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌), a member of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee responsible for monitoring the Ministry of the Interior, supported Liao’s offer.
“I respect the minister for what he has decided,” Hsueh said. “Although he wasn’t personally responsible for the errors, he should still be held accountable for mistakes made by the people who work for him.”
Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如), another DPP lawmaker and long-time social welfare activist, expressed discontent with Liao’s policies.
“The Ministry of the Interior has become the ‘ministry of handing out money.’ The idea behind issuing consumer vouchers is just like other welfare policies he has implemented before,” Chen said. “If he thinks he should be responsible for handing out money carelessly [and step down], he can go right ahead.”
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS