Cabinet to evaluate tainted oil scandal

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Cabinet to evaluate tainted oil scandal

Fate of health and welfare minister also at stake: reports

Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2014-09-16 04:56 PM

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Cabinet is to spend the next two days evaluating the necessary measures to counter the tainted lard oil scandal, while the question of who bore political responsibility would also be on the table, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said Tuesday.

Bakeries, restaurants and other food companies across the country were still dealing with the consequences of the controversy, which involved the sale of lard oil made from kitchen waste or animal feed oil unfit for human consumption.

The chairman of the company at the heart of the scandal, Chang Guann Co., and the man who collected the waste to resell as lard oil were both detained in the wake of the scandal, which left over 1,000 companies accused of having sold tainted products.

Jiang said the Cabinet would hold a special meeting about the food safety crisis Wednesday. Once every aspect of the problem had been analyzed, it would come out with the conclusions and explain them to the public within the next few days, he said.

The fate of Health and Welfare Minister Chiu Wen-ta was also likely to be a topic during the Cabinet discussions, reports said. The minister has come under fire for allegedly keeping a low profile while the crisis expanded to national proportions, leading to calls for his resignations. Only late last week did Jiang say that Chiu might be willing to take political responsibility, a statement interpreted as heralding the minister’s eventual resignation.

Jiang emphasized in his responses to lawmakers’ questions Tuesday that he had not been contacting potential successors to Chiu. The premier said he had his own ideas on the matter, but the most important issue was to how to solve the crisis. The Cabinet meetings would work out legal, organizational and executive changes to meet the challenge, he said.

Responding to a question from a lawmaker Tuesday, Economics Minister Woody Duh estimated the current damage to the economy at NT$5 billion (US$165 million), but he added that the biggest damage was to the reputation of businesses, which was immeasurable.

Taiwan’s food sector focused on the domestic market, with the international market coming only second, Duh told lawmakers. However, if small and medium food companies felt they needed special assistance, the government would be ready to provide it, he said.

In Pingtung County, Magistrate Tsao Chi-hung took a bow and apologized to the public Tuesday, also announcing the removal of five members of his administration over the food scandal.

Kuo Lieh-cheng, the man alleged to be at the center of the allegations, operated an illegal oil factory in the southern county. Several inspections by the county government reportedly failed to find any problems with Kuo’s operations.

The scandal recently became an issue in the campaign for the November 29 local and regional elections, with the Kuomintang accusing Tsao, a member of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, of serious negligence. Tsao is no longer a candidate in the election since he cannot run again after a second consecutive term, but the KMT has tried to picture the DPP as a whole as an incompetent manager of the local government.

At the local level, many food producers were still dealing with the aftermath of having been supplied tainted oil. Staff at Taipei bakery Lee Chi were moving 120,000 cakes to a local incinerator. They estimated the damage at NT$40 million (US$1.3 million), with the scandal also forcing them to remain closed until September 24, reports said.