MOF examining China Steel chair's bonus, Hsieh says

The Ministry of Finance is studying whether China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Lee Wen-yuan (林文淵) violated any laws in accepting a huge stock bonus, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday.

If he is found to have violated the law, the bonus will have to be returned, the premier said.

In the event that the acceptance of the bonus is deemed inappropriate -- even though no law was broken -- then the law and relevant regulations will have to be amended, Hsieh added.

Also under study, according to Hsieh, are the questions of how much of the bonus should be returned and whether, if Lin is to return all or part of the bonus, his predecessors should also be required to return bonuses they received.

Lin's stock bonus worth about NT$44 million (US$1.31 million) has been a topic of heated discussion as a large group of "pan-green camp" lawmakers signed a motion on Wednesday demanding that Lin give up the stock bonus and return it to the national coffers.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that even though Lin is not a DPP member, he is a member of the ruling team and must be judged by a high moral standard and be subject to relevant laws and regulations.

Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), director of the DPP's Department of Culture and Information, said that compensation packages for government-appointed leaders of state-run enterprises, government-invested businesses and government-subsidized non-profit organizations must be "reasonable and legal" and acceptable to the public.

Facing lawmakers' demands to return his ``unreasonably high'' bonus, Lin said the payments reflected the firm's improved performance and its rules.

"My salary and benefits are all paid in accordance with company rules," Lin said in a statement posted on the Kaohsiung-based company's Web site.

"The value increased solely because of surges in net profits and the stock price," it said.