Five New Taipei City Crematorium employees were yesterday released on bail of NT$50,000 (US$1,628) each after being questioned about allegations of accepting bribes from private funeral service operators.
The five were summoned as persons of interest after judicial investigators conducted a search over the corruption allegations. Seven private funeral service proprietors were also questioned and released.
On Wednesday, led by New Taipei City Prosecutor Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰), Ministry of Justice Agency Against Corruption agents and police raided 18 locations and detained the 12 for questioning.
Photo: Wang Ting-chuan, Taipei Times
The New Taipei City Crematorium is a unit of the government-run New Taipei City Funeral Parlor in Banciao District (板橋).
Staff at the crematorium and at public funeral parlors allegedly received regular monthly bribes from private funeral service operators, with the cumulative amount reaching about NT$30 million since the practice started in 2020, Lee said.
Some staff allegedly received about NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 each month, while lower-ranked employees received about NT$3,000 per month, Lee said.
Long lines, procedural delays and local customs and traditions requiring the holding of rituals on certain days after the deceased’s passing have given rise to the illegal practice of relatives or friends of the deceased paying bribes to expedite the process or get ahead of the line for cremation and funeral services, industry insiders said.
The five employees may be charged with contravening the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), Lee said.
The latest operation is a continuation of a corruption probe that started in January, in which 20 civil servants, headed by a section head surnamed Hsi (席), at New Taipei City’s crematorium and funeral parlor, and 12 private proprietors were detained for questioning.
Hsi was released on bail of NT$200,000, while most of the other staff posted bail of NT$100,000 each, Lee said.
One person who refused to admit to accepting bribes when questioned was given a higher bail of NT$500,000, Lee added.
Prosecutors said that a similar corruption investigation was carried out in Taipei in March last year, and officials at the Taipei Mortuary Services Office were in December that year convicted of bribery, forgery and collusion.
The Taipei District Court handed out a 14-month sentence to Taipei’s former Burial and Cemetery Management Section head Ou Yang Keng-sheng (歐陽更生) and a 16-month jail term for technician Sun Pei-jen (孫佩仁).
Authorities initiated the judicial investigation after receiving public complaints about being asked to give “red envelopes” to bribe officials at the Taipei Mortuary Services Office (台北市殯葬管理處) to facilitate services at either of the two city-operated funeral parlors.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS