How Many in Tsai Gov’t Can Order Military to Disperse Funds?

  How Many in Tsai Gov’t Can Order Military to Disperse Funds?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

November 16, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

A relevant recording in the minesweepers case was recently revealed, surprisingly exposing an explosive development in the Ching Fu case. In the recording, Wang Tuan-jen, Kaohsiung City director of Oceanic Affairs, in the company of officials from the National Fisheries Agency, went to meet secretly with Chen Wei-jyh, Vice Chairman of Ching Fu, to discuss how to help the company to win the public tender at the Singda Harbor, aiding and abetting him to win the tender illegally. In the secret meeting, Chen Wei-jyh also boasted that he had been to the Presidential Palace for “communication” and received the disbursement of NT$2.4 billion two days later. In addition to exposing the scandalous behavior of Kaohsiung City Hall officials’ involvement in the case, the secret meeting also revealed the great efforts the DPP government exerted in the case. It is by no means as simple as the DPP had earlier wanted to picture the Ching Fu case as a scandal of the Ma government.

Since the recording was exposed, the Presidential Palace sternly denied Chen Wei-jyh's version that he had entered the Palace for communication, but viewed from the developments afterwards, it shows that the content of the conversation at the time was not fictitious. First, Kaohsiung City director of Oceanic Affairs Wang Tuan-jen admitted that he had visited Ching Fu only to argue that his purpose was to attract investments. Secondly, Wang Tuan-jen did not deny his recommendations to Ching Fu as to how to win the bid illegally, saying only that those were his own "immature" recommendations, but he immediately tendered his resignation that night, which was approved, explaining that he knew his behavior was extremely improper. Thirdly, it has also been confirmed that the military later made disbursements to Ching Fu for the third stage payment in accordance to the contract, including how to divert funds under items of purchases, in nine batches for a total of NT$2.4 billion; details of the monies were itemized.

Legislator Ma Wen-chun last year had introduced a motion to freeze 10% of the budget for the minesweepers; in March this year, the Ministry of National Defense (MND), when responding to interpellations, still denied having made disbursements to Ching Fu for the third stage contract payment. Only after the recent exposure of the recording did the MND admit that disbursements had been made last year, and the outside world began to learn that the MND had not prepared a complete budget for the minesweepers after the project was approved. Therefore, it needed to divert funds from budget items for other weapons. Had it not been orders from high-echelons in the MND or the government, who would have the authority to order the three services of the armed forces to divert funds allocated for purchasing other weapons and equipment? Also because of this, how many in the Tsai government (including Ministers without Portfolio) could order the military to make disbursements is a mystery that needs to be unraveled. 

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