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.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS