High prosecutors to probe Chen’s spending

They said they will make an investigation into the portion of the special state affairs expense accounts that require legitimate receipts or invoices to determine if there were people committed crime by attaching false invoices for the expenditures.

However, the THPO will not be able to look into the part of the fund for which the president is not required by the law to furnish any spending documents, they explained.

Prompted by opposition lawmakers, especially Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Chiu Yi, the MOA recently completed an audit of the accounting books concerning President Chen Shui-bian’s special state affairs expenditures. The lawmakers and local media have criticized the Presidential Office for lax appropriation, flawed screening, and failed control over the funds.

According to the law, the Presidential Office is entitled to apply for as much as NT$50 million in state affairs spending per year on behalf of the president, with half of the expenditures needing invoices to claim the money. Lin Ching-lung, vice minister of audit at the Control Yuan, pointed out that the NT$48 million special budget allocated for last year’s state affairs spending was almost completely depleted with only some NT$100,000 left.

The Presidential Office failed to provide receipts for half of the expenditures. There were no notifications for and additional NT$12.7 million spending. In other words, the “questionable” expenditures amounted to more than NT$36 million, accounting for 77 percent of the total account.

Lin said the MOA refused to accept such spending and sent the relevant data to the THPO for probe.

MOA spokesman Wang Yung-hsing admitted that some invoices issued by the Pacific Sogo Department Store, the Grand Hyatt Taipei Hotel, and the Ambassador Hotel plus a luxury goods shop as well as a jade and jewelry store.

These invoices were actually used by business woman, Lee Hui-feng, who presently lives in Australia. Lee told local media that her invoices and receipts were gathered by her cousin, Lee Pi-chun, who allegedly transferred them to first lady Wu Shu-chen to claim reimbursements from the government.

Opposition lawmakers urged both the MOA and law enforcement authorities to open an immediate investigation into “suspicious” special state affairs spending claimed by the Presidential Office on behalf of taxpayers.

Chiu and other KMT lawmakers said that the prosecutors at the THPO must resist all possible pressure to conduct an impartial probe in order to regain the people’s confidence and trust in the nation’s judicial system.

The Presidential Office issued a statement late yesterday said it will cooperate with the relevant agencies for the judicial investigation concerning the case.

But the statement also stressed that the Presidential Office has been simply following the same past practices of former presidents since 1951. Since the MOA holds different views on the financial data for 2005, the Presidential Office will make a further review and provide new materials to the MOA.

The statement also underscored the necessity of modifying the accounting procedures concerning the special state affairs budget allocated to the president because there are still certain rules impractical.

Lawmakers at the legislative caucus of the ruling DPP said they respected the opinions of the MOA and the actions of the judicial authorities.

But they will call on MOA officials to question them if they have applied the same audit principles to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, who is concurrently chairman of the opposition KMT. The lawmakers said they want to know how Ma list his expenditures and why his family assets increased sharply in recent years.

Meanwhile, caucus leaders extended the ban on any DPP legislator from accepting invitation to appear on the political talk shows — 2100 Public Forum, News Night Club, and Weekend Talk — hosted by the TVBS cable TV network whose persistent digging brought to light the many allegations concerning questionable activities by members of President Chen’s family and some senior aides.

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