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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Assets committee unfreezes funds for KMT payroll
Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee Chairman Wellington Koo talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday after a committee meeting to discuss the Chinese Nationalist Party’s （KMT） request for its assets to be unfrozen so it could pay staff salaries and year-end bonuses. Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
NT$150 MILLION: Assets committee unfreezes funds for KMT payroll
By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee yesterday announced the lifting of a freeze on about NT$150 million （US$4.77 million） worth of Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） assets, allowing the party to pay its workers this month amid efforts to downsize its operations.
The committee approved the KMT’s request to access NT$150 million in frozen assets to cover this month’s salaries, year-end bonuses and other bonuses, committee chairman Wellington Koo （顧立雄） said.
The withdrawal will leave the KMT with about NT$690 million in cash in its bank accounts, seven uncashed checks and a payment owed by the Chang Yung-fa Foundation.
The KMT is to lay off all of its 738 employees on Tuesday next week and rehire 310 the following day. The NT$690 million will be used to pay for severance pay and pensions.
The KMT’s downsizing plan would prevent it from using presumably illegally obtained assets to cover its payroll expenses, as 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） states that parties have to use legally acquired income to pay for salaries of new employees hired after the act was promulgated.
‘SIGNIFICANT’ STEP
“Jan. 31, when the party settles all its due payments, will be the end of the era where the KMT funded its operations with [ill-gotten] assets,” Koo said
“It will be a significant moment for achieving transitional justice and will create a fair competitive environment for political parties,” he said.
“The KMT after Jan. 31 will be a very different party. It will be totally funded by legally acquired income, which will be an epoch-making development for Taiwan,” he said.
The KMT can negotiate with the committee if it has to sell some of its properties, such as its local branches, should the NT$690 million not be enough to cover the layoff expenses, Koo said.
However, it will not be allowed to dispose of the assets of its presumed affiliates, including Central Investment Co （中央投資公司） and Hsinyutai Co （欣裕台股份有限公司）, he said.
The committee has frozen a total of NT$920 million in KMT assets, but about NT$230 million had been released prior to yesterday to allow the party to pay salaries and labor and health insurance fees.
COURT RULING
In related news, the Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday ruled against the committee in the freezing of NT$740 million in KMT assets.
The Supreme Administrative Court last year suspended the committee’s order freezing two KMT bank accounts and eight uncashed checks, but the committee immediately issued another freeze.
The KMT appealed the second order, and the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled in its favor.
The frozen money, though likely to be recognized as ill-gotten assets, are key to the KMT’s survival, and the freeze has severely limited the party’s operations, causing the party to delay salary payments and dismiss hundreds of employees, the ruling said.
The committee regrets the ruling, but respects it, spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang （施錦芳） said, adding that the freeze order had been issued because the KMT had not been transparent in handling its assets.
The KMT in August last year cashed a check of NT$5.2 million allegedly for payroll purposes, but transferred the money to a personal account in an apparent attempt to hide the funds and did not report the transfer to the committee, Shih said.
As the KMT could not be expected to duly report the management of its properties and assets, the committee had to impose the freeze to preserve the party’s assets, she added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
