Cigarettes Smuggling Scandal: Control Yuan Issues Corrective Measures Against 3 Ministries

 Cigarettes Smuggling Scandal: Control Yuan Issues Corrective Measures Against 3 Ministries

Source: UDN

July 24, 2020

Yesterday, the Control Yuan adopted a motion of corrective measures against the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Customs Administration under the Finance Ministry after an over-one-year-long investigation into the cigarettes smuggling scandal involving National Security Bureau (NSB) special agents, who utilized the customs clearance exemption enjoyed by the President on diplomatic tours to smuggle a huge number of duty-free cigarette cartons pre-ordered from the on-line duty-free merchandise system of China Airlines into Taiwan in July last year. However, neither the NSB, with the highest degree of involvement in the case, was corrected by the Control Yuan nor Chen Chu (陳菊), the then Secretary-General to the President, now the newly-confirmed president of the Control Yuan, was held accountable, eliciting an uproar among various circles.  

The case members of the Control Yuan explained that although the investigation results showed that the Presidential Office and the NSB had committed several transgressions in the case, the Control Yuan was merely able to demand that the Presidential Office and the NSB reexamine their transgressions and make improvements on the grounds that the Control Yuan could only exercise its power of corrective measures against administrative agencies, not against any government agencies outside the Cabinet, including the Presidential Office and the NSB.  

However, KMT legislator Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) rebutted the Control Yuan’s statements by saying that the Control Yuan of course had the power to issue corrective measures, or impeachments, against the NSB and staff of the Presidential Office.  

A news analysis carried by the United Daily News pointed out that past precedents of the Control Yuan issuing corrective measures or impeachments against officials of the Presidential Office or the NSB were great in numbers. For example, Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成), a former secretary to the President, was corrected by the Control Yuan as he had seconded a police officer from the Taipei City Police Department to be his chauffeur. In addition, after the 3/19 Shooting Incident in 2004, Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明), the then NSB director-general, and Lt. Gen. Chen Tsa-fu (陳再福), the then chief aide-de-camp to the president, were impeached by the Control Yuan and referred to the Commission on Disciplinary Sanctions of Public Functionaries.

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