Nantou county chief impeached
2013/09/10 21:03:54
Taipei, Sept. 10 (CNA) Suspended Nantou Magistrate Lee Chao-ching was impeached by the Control Yuan Tuesday on allegations of corruption.
The movement to impeach Lee, who is accused of taking kickbacks mainly in relation to projects including post-disaster reconstruction of roads and bridges and procurement contracts for a national sports meet, came after 11 out of 12 Control Yuan members voted in favor.
Control Yuan member Chen Yung-hsiang said an investigation was launched after the 63-year-old magistrate was indicted in March on charges of taking kickbacks worth NT$31 million (US$1.06 million) for up to 117 construction projects in the central county.
Lee and four other county government officials were involved in seven major corruption cases, Chen said.
A construction company set up by one of Lee's relatives is suspected of collecting the bribe money, he said.
Huang Rong-teh, the head of Nantou's public works department who divided up the bribes and who allegedly coordinated the bribes with the contractors, as well as Lee's secretary, Chang Chih-yi, who was authorized to rig the tenders to allow specified contractors to win, were also impeached.
Lee, who became head of the county government in 2005 and was re-elected to a second four-year term in 2009, was suspended Nov. 30 last year.
Kuomintang Legislator Lin Ming-chen condemned the Control Yuan's impeachment decision, saying that Lee's corruption case was not complete.
He noted that former Nantou Magistrate Peng Pai-hsien, who was charged with corruption over several reconstruction projects after the earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999, was found not guilty after the lawsuit against him dragged on for more than 10 years.
(By Claudia Liu, Lin Han-li and Maia Huang)
