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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 KMT, committee clash over frozen assets, salaries
Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan, right, and KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan speak at a news conference in Taipei yesterday about the party’s difficulties in paying staff salaries. Photo: CNA
By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
The Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） and the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday clashed over fund management, after the KMT said that salaries for party workers for last month would be delayed because the committee had frozen its bank account.
“We are in a financial bind because our assets are frozen,” KMT Administration and Management Committee director Chiu Da-chan （邱大展） said, accusing the committee of preventing the party from meeting its obligations by freezing its Bank SinoPac （永豐銀行） account last week.
“Because employees’ salaries match the definition of ‘legal responsibilities,’ which we are allowed to continue paying under the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations （政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例）, we feel that the committee’s explanation of its decision [to freeze the account] is problematic,” he said, vowing to take legal action.
KMT lawyer Chang Shao-teng （張少騰） said the party would demand that its banks allow access to funds, while simultaneously appealing for both the committee’s reconsideration of the freeze along with a separate administrative court stay.
Chiu also denied the committee’s claims that the party had already spent NT$2 billion （US$63.8 million） this year, saying its total annual budget was about NT$1.6 billion.
“We will still pay the salaries, but there is not enough time this month because we have been having difficulties procuring funds,” said KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan （詹啟賢）, who heads the party’s response committee.
The party will “do everything in its power” to pay the salaries by the end of this month,” he said, adding that the party does not know what funds the committee is referring to.
“We do not have that kind of money on hand,” he said.
Revealing how the party plans to procure funds would be “inconvenient,” but they would not come from just one source, he said.
“We do not and will not have any financial exchanges with affiliate organizations or the Central Investment Co （中央投資公司）,” he said, repeating his words for emphasis.
Responding to the KMT’s complaints, committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang （施錦芳） said: “We only froze the account because, based on our calculations, the KMT was using illicit funds.”
She added that the withdrawal figure cited by the committee came from official bank records.
The NT$2 billion withdrawal was greater than the KMT’s revenue of NT$600 million from proven legitimate sources this year, she said.
The committee suspects that the remainder was provided by revenues from “illicit assets” owned by the Central Investment Co and Hsinyutai Co （欣裕台股份有限公司）, another KMT holding firm.
“The KMT still has NT$8.5 million in revenue sitting in its political donation account — so it has money to pay salaries, but instead, it has chosen to fight us over using the other account,” she said, adding that the political account has not been frozen.
Chan said that the party had chosen to delay paying salaries to allow time to craft a “long-term solution” to its financial difficulties.
“We have other party affairs and work to push forward, so we cannot pay out all of this money now,” he said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
