Yilan County Health Bureau.

(Photo by reporter Cai Yunrong)

[Reporter Cai Yunrong/Yilan Report] Jiang Congyuan, the Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate for Yilan county magistrate, broke the news at a political opinion conference today that employees of the Yilan County Government’s Health Bureau were suspected of using the central government’s budget for purchasing gifts from convenience stores to care for infected patients. Buying gift certificates and then selling them for embezzlement, the amount is as high as tens of millions of yuan. The county government's government wind department has been investigating for more than a month and has not yet been found.

The Health Bureau responded that the employee over-purchased gift certificates and exchanged them for cash to fill the gap in his personal finances, and then paid the manufacturer with personal funds. The amount was estimated to be tens of millions of yuan. The bureau also took the initiative to investigate and brought the people involved to surrender. At the same time, it clarified that the money involved in the case was not "epidemic prevention subsidy money."

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Jiang Congyuan said at the political opinion conference that the employees of the Health Bureau used the central government's convenience store gift purchase budget to take care of the infected people, used it to buy gift certificates, and then sold them for embezzlement. The sales amounted to tens of millions of dollars. The case was only exposed, and the Political Ethics Department should have been investigating for more than a month. Will this be the second case where the county government has been prosecuted for corruption?

Lin Zimiao, please explain clearly.

When Lin Zimiao took the stage to speak, she responded that the county government had taken the initiative to send the case to the inspection and investigation unit, and if there was any violation, it would be dealt with strictly.

The County Health Bureau issued a press release stating that, through internal audits, it was found that an employee used his position to purchase gift certificates for publicity materials in exchange for cash, and immediately referred them to the ICAC for investigation.

According to the Health Bureau, the employee is a temporary employee of the Health Bureau and is responsible for the purchase of gift vouchers to encourage patients to correctly accept disease treatment-related plans; this employee has recently taken advantage of his position to purchase gift vouchers in excess in private and exchange them for cash to fill his personal expenses. The financial gap, and then pay the manufacturer with personal funds, the amount is roughly estimated to be tens of millions.

The Health Bureau stated that after the Health Bureau and the relevant industry jointly discovered the abnormal procurement, it immediately contacted the government unit for investigation, and recently surrendered to the ICAC with the employee.

The Health Bureau emphasized that this case was discovered through an active investigation by the Health Bureau. After the incident, it adhered to the principle of "don't abuse, don't indulge", brought the employee to surrender and suspended him from his duties.

The Health Bureau has transferred the relevant information to the ICAC for investigation, and will cooperate with the progress of the case and provide various assistance in the future.

As for what Candidate Jiang said, the employee was embezzling the "anti-epidemic subsidy" given to the epidemic prevention people, which is inconsistent with the facts.