Three diplomats are under investigation following local media reports accusing them of separate acts of misconduct while in office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
Chinese-language Mirror Magazine on Wednesday accused Representative to Fiji Paul Chen (陳盈連), Representative to the WTO Lo Chang-fa (羅昌發) and a section chief at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US, Wei Yue-han (魏月涵), of separate acts of wrongdoing, including misusing public funds and ordering subordinates to complete personal tasks.
Following the reports, the ministry said it has launched separate investigations into the three diplomats.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The ministry also announced that Chen would return to Taiwan soon to be investigated by the Ministry of Justice’s Agency Against Corruption.
Chen allegedly spent NT$600,000 (US$19,504) from a diplomatic budget on 88 items, including Apple products, Hello Kitty dolls, Starbucks items and bathroom scales, for personal use during his diplomatic posting in Guam from 2020 to 2022.
An inventory check of his official residence in Guam before his reassignment to Fiji allegedly revealed that as many as 95 items were missing, the magazine reported.
Chen allegedly said that flooding caused by a typhoon accounted for the missing items, the report quoted a whistle-blower as saying.
On the other hand, Lo allegedly ordered an employee to use his government vehicle to transport garbage from his personal residence to the office during work hours and the diplomat saved on personal cleaning expenses, the magazine reported.
Lo’s wife, Huang Yu-hua (黃鈺華), was also accused of assigning Lo’s subordinates with nonofficial tasks such as supervising renovation work at the diplomat’s official residence, it said.
Wei was separately accused of unfairly assigning work to subordinates, it said.
Last month, Mirror Magazine published reports alleging that Representative to the US Alexander Yui (俞大?) had spent about NT$8 million refurbishing his official residence since he took up the post in December last year.
The ministry said its investigation found that the work had adhered to regulations and no irregularities were identified.
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