When Jiang Yijie, a former social worker supervisor at the Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau, worked for the Taipei City Social Affairs Bureau for more than a year, he took advantage of the opportunity of keeping the bankbooks and seals of elderly people who were declared guardians to embezzle the property of at least five elderly people in Wenshan District, totaling more than 10 million yuan. When he left his job to handle business handover, he was found to have a lack of accounts, and the whole case came to light. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan claimed that the Social Affairs Bureau took the initiative to discover, investigate, and report. Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua questioned that the city government’s social welfare management was completely paralyzed. Chiang Wanan packaged the post-remediation as a proactive action, which could not cover up the fact that the supervision mechanism had completely failed for more than a year.
Jiang Wanan said that the Social Affairs Bureau took the initiative to discover, investigate, and report to the District Prosecutor's Office. "It is very abhorrent to cheat the elderly out of money. We will never cover it up. We will strictly investigate and pursue it to the end." However, Xu Shuhua believes that during the social worker named Jiang's tenure for more than a year, the money was taken away one by one without the city government noticing. It was not until the person left that the account was found to be wrong. This was not a proactive move, but an afterthought. Packaging the post-incident remediation as a proactive action cannot cover up the fact that the supervision mechanism has completely failed for more than a year.
If Jiang Yijie had not resigned, would the money have continued to be taken away?
Xu Shuhua said that the most shocking thing about the whole case was not just that someone was suspected of misappropriating the elderly's savings, but that the city government's management and supervision did not find anything unusual. These elderly people need the government's assistance in taking care of them, so they hand over their properties to the city government for management. But the five elders' money was taken away again and again, and the supervisor did not check the purpose? No regular audits? Why did it take until the undertaker resigned to find out? If she had not resigned, would she have continued to receive the money?
Jiji, delayed placement of girls, wolf master...the victims are all vulnerable
Xu Shuhua said that the Social Affairs Bureau and the city government management must answer "Why did the supervision mechanism fail?" Jiang Wanan said that it must be "investigated to the end." It cannot just hold a former employee accountable, but must also include the management responsibility for allowing the loophole to exist for more than a year. Xu Shuhua pointed out that from the 240-day delay in the eviction case and the 240-day delay in the girl's placement, to the 228-day delay in the investigation report on the Wolf Master's sexual assault case, to this case of the embezzlement of the elderly's savings, those affected are the people who are most in need of government protection. Although the cases are different, we have repeatedly seen that the risks were not discovered in time, and only when something went wrong did we start to review. But the social safety net cannot always be reviewed after something happens. Chiang Wanan must clearly explain what went wrong with the Taipei City Government's management.
The Social Affairs Bureau did not respond specifically to the parliamentarian's questions and simply referred the matter to judicial investigation, emphasizing that the investigation was not open to the public and did not respond.
