GRAFT PROBE DEALS BLOW TO TAIWAN'S OPPOSITION LEADER
Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan's opposition leader and presidential hopeful, faces a big challenge to his political future after irregularities were revealed yesterday in the use of his special allowance as mayor of Taipei.
Although there is so far no evidence of graft against Mr Ma, chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Taipei mayor, the development is set to make him a target for the ruling Democratic Progressive party. The DPP is suffering from the corruption scandals surrounding Chen Shui-bian, president. It could also destroy Mr Ma's squeaky-clean image, the basis for his popularity, and endanger backing within his own party for a presidential candidacy in 2008.
Mr Ma was questioned by prosecutors yesterday morning over allegations from the ruling party that he might have lined his pockets with part of his mayoral special allowance. After the questioning, Mr Ma said he was innocent and prosecutors said they did not view him as a corruption suspect.
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But last night, the Taipei city government said an internal probe had found that one official used receipts for consumption unrelated to the mayoral budget provided by himself and third parties for disbursements from the allowance. This is the same practice that brought Mr Chen into trouble. About two weeks ago, prosecutors indicted the first lady on charges of corruption, forgery and perjury over the use of a presidential discretionary budget and named the president as a “joint perpetrator”.
Lee Shu-teh, secretary-general of the Taipei city government, said it found that a total of about T$800,000 (US$24,400) over the past three years had been claimed from the mayoral allowance through third party receipts. Mr Lee said the practice had been an attempt to save time in accounting by combining many small sums spent on items such as newspapers, tea and fruit for the mayor's office into larger sums. “None of this money ended up in the mayor's personal pocket,” he said.
马英九被指违规使用“市长特别费”
台北市长马英九的政治前途面临巨大挑战，因为昨日有消息披露，其“市长特别费”的使用存在违规行为。马英九是台湾反对党――国民党的主席，并有望当选台湾总统。
尽管目前还没有马英九贪污的证据，但事态发展必将使其成为执政的民进党攻击的目标――民进党正因总统陈水扁的腐败丑闻而受到连累。这还可能有损马英九的清廉形象，危及国民党内部对马英九在2008年参加总统竞选的支持。清廉形象正是马英九获得民众拥护的根本原因。
昨日上午，由于执政党指控他将部分市长特别费中饱私囊，马英九接受了检调人员的约谈。约谈结束后，马英九表示自己是清白的，检调人员也表示，未将马英九视为腐败嫌犯。
但昨日晚间，台北市政府表示，一项内部调查发现，一位官员曾拿本人和第三方提供的与市长预算无关的消费发票，核销市长特别费。正是同样的行为让陈水扁陷入麻烦。大约两周前，检调单位以贪污“国务机要费”和伪造文书罪起诉总统夫人，并将陈水扁列为“共犯”。
台北市秘书长李述德表示，台北市政府发现，在过去3年中，以第三方发票核销“市长特别费”的总金额约为80万元新台币（合2.44万美元）。李述德表示，此种做法是为了在记账时取巧，用无关的大额发票，代替为市长办公室购买的报纸、茶叶和水果等项目的众多小额发票。他表示：“这些钱没有任何一笔落入市长个人腰包。”
