Matsu official impeached for corruption, unauthorized deer culling

Taipei, May 8 (CNA) An advisory officer for the Lienchiang County (Matsu) government has been impeached by the Control Yuan for soliciting and accepting bribes, engaging in grant fraud and unilaterally ordering the culling of 83 sika deer.

The official, Liu Te-chuan (劉德全), committed the offenses over a multi-year period beginning in 2016 while serving as head of the county's Industrial Development Division and Public Works Department, the Control Yuan said in a press release Wednesday.

According to the statement, Liu solicited and received around NT$1 million (US$30,872) in bribes from three companies bidding for county government contracts between 2016 and 2020.

In 2018 and 2019, while serving on a committee awarding industrial innovation grants, Liu knowingly approved five applications for over NT$3 million in funds that his two sons had filed via shell companies or companies belonging to acquaintances, the Control Yuan said.

In 2020, Liu ordered a company that won an animal control contract from the county government to cull 83 sika deer on Daqiu Island -- an uninhabited former military outpost north of Beigan Island -- even though the contract made no mention of culling deer and the government had not formulated plans to do so.

The contractor later went to the island, and after using snare traps to capture the deer, inhumanely killed them by cutting their throats or stabbing them in their vital organs, in violation of animal welfare laws, the statement said.

The Control Yuan noted that the Lienchiang District Court had found Liu guilty last year on five charges, including accepting bribes and breach of trust by a public official, and sentenced him to nine years and 10 months in prison.

In response, the Lienchiang County government on Wednesday said it "respected" the ruling, and would await a subsequent judgment from the Disciplinary Court for civil servants, to which Liu's case has been referred.

The Disciplinary Court could impose a range of administrative penalties on Liu, including demotion, revocation of his status as a civil servant, a fine, or a reduction or cancellation of his pension.