The Control Yuan yesterday voted 10-2 to impeach former minister of the Government Information Office (GIO) Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) for misappropriation of government funds.
Control Yuan members Ma Hsiu-ru (馬秀如) and Ma Yi-kung (馬以工) told a press conference that Shieh had requested a total of NT$86 million (US$2.7 million) in October 2007 and February 2008 from the Executive Yuan’s secondary reserve funds to promote the then-Democratic Progressive Party government’s campaign to apply for UN membership under the name “Taiwan.”
The Executive Yuan granted the GIO a total of NT$63 million, the Control Yuan members said.
“The reasons Shieh applied for the reserve funds did not meet any of the three circumstances set out in the Budget Act (預算法) for the fund to be used,” Ma Hsiu-ru said.
They added that the Ministry of Audit should demand that the GIO return the money, and the GIO could demand that Shieh give back the money. The Control Yuan also censured the Executive Yuan, the GIO, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, and the Sports Affairs Council in this case.
Asked for a response on the impeachment, Shieh said over the phone that he did not do anything illegal in using public funds to make the government’s policies better known by people living in Taiwan and abroad.
Shieh said he suspected there was political pressure behind the impeachment motion and panned the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government for failing to deliver on its campaign pledge to seek the country’s “return to the UN.”
The Control Yuan yesterday also censured the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Education (MOE) for failing to formulate measures for economically disadvantaged students in line with the principles of fairness and justice.
The motion, initiated by Control Yuan members Shen Mei-chen (沈美真), Chen Jinn-lin (陳進利) and Frank Wu (吳豐山), was endorsed by the Control Yuan’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee.
Shen said they found a number of flaws in the government’s subsidy policies for students in need of financial assistance, including a government measure earmarking NT$2.9 billion to provide free lunch for schoolchildren but the program did not rule out students from well-off families.
The two government agencies were also charged with failing to expand the coverage of its student loan project to include loans for living expenses.
The committee also censured Neihu Senior High School, as well as the MOE, the Department of Health, Taipei City Government’s education and health departments and the Zhongxiao Branch of Taipei City Hospital over a controversy surrounding health checks for new students last September.
Control Yuan member Gau Fehng-shian (高鳳仙) initiated an investigation following media reports that some female students had complained about being asked to remove their underpants for a hernia examination by male doctors.
The school and the government agencies were censured for failing to follow standard procedures, including providing consent forms prior to the health examination and informing female students that the examination would require contact with their private parts, Gau said.
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