The Control Yuan yesterday asked the Judicial Yuan’s Disciplinary Court to retry former Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey’s (翁啟惠) case after the court reprimanded Wong for not fully disclosing his assets and failing to recuse himself in a matter that could have led to a conflict of interest.
Wong, accused of having made illicit gains by purchasing OBI Pharma stock, was acquitted by the Shilin District Court in December 2018.
However, he was impeached by the Disciplinary Court in 2017 for not fully disclosing his assets during an asset report, a decision he has already appealed twice.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The March 8 amendment of Article 14-1 of the Enforcement Rules of the Control Act (監察法施行細則) gave Wong reason to launch another appeal.
“Should the [Disciplinary Court] find that there are grounds to reinvestigate a case, it should dispatch, or alternate between, two members of the former court presiding over the case to head the reinvestigation,” Article 14-1 states.
Wong is an internationally acclaimed academic and his reputation should not be impugned, Control Yuan members said yesterday, adding that he would not be the only individual to benefit from Article 14-1.
Freedom to conduct research is a constitutionally guaranteed right, and Academia Sinica, as the highest institution for independent research in the country, should have its research protected, they said.
The members called on the court to respect Academia Sinica’s decision regarding allegations that Wong had not recused himself from acts that might have caused a conflict of interest.
The Academia Sinica Principles on Handling Conflict of Interest (中央研究院科技移轉利益衝突迴避處理原則) as they stood on Aug. 14, 2012, did not make a distinction between the position a person held as an administrator or as an academic, they said.
There was no correlation between Wong as the creator of the technology being transferred, and Wong the institute’s highest-level administrator, the members said, adding that he had followed the rules and filled out the form declaring the possibility of a conflict of interest.
The regulations as they stood in 2012 did not state that the technology’s creator could not become a stock owner, the members said, adding that Academia Sinica’s opaque regulations on conflicts of interest should not carry over to an individual who had followed rules.
The Control Yuan’s investigation has found that, based on new evidence and facts, the original basis for the court reprimanding Wong was no longer valid, the members said.
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