Yesterday's Cabinet-imposed deadline for local government distribution of compensation payments (
Though Premier Siew (
Siew yesterday avoided reporters' questions about whether the central government would punish localities found to be behind schedule, reiterating instead his support for the hard work being done by local officials in the fund disbursement process.
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSIUNG, LIBERTY TIMES
"I am very grateful to these township leaders, as they have already issued a large portion of the compensation funds," he said. "The central government and township offices have to work as one, so we shouldn't be considered separately. Getting the work done is the most important thing."
Siew also responded to criticism over the changing directives for compensation eligibility.
"I can understand that grass-roots leaders are under great pressure, but at this point the [central] government can only solve technical problems for them. As I understand it, they have their own local problems, such as landlord-tenant disputes after the identification of damaged buildings, which we can't solve," he said.
Liu San-chi (劉三錡), a representative of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (主計處, DGBAS), said local governments handed out NT$1.5 billion in housing compensation funds to earthquake victims on Friday alone.
He added that local governments should be able to disburse all housing compensation funds that do not involve damage certification disputes by tomorrow or Tuesday.
The slow distribution of housing compensation, however, has angered some earthquake victims. The central government recently accused localities of inefficiency and corruption, and ordered they issue all housing compensation funds by yesterday, under threat of punishment.
After visiting with local government agencies, Taichung County Commissioner Liao Yung-lai (
Work in handing out compensation funds is behind schedule in Taichung City and Taichung and Nantou Counties.
Local governments also began disbursing funds for the "jobs in exchange for relief" program yesterday. The program was set up by the Council for Labor Affairs, and pays the minimum wage to local residents in exchange for work on reconstruction efforts. Those who are currently unemployed and had their houses damaged in the earthquake are eligible.
Enthusiasm for the plan varied by locality. Some 949 people lined up to collect NT$13,200 per person in Tali (
No one collected their work subsidies in Fengyuan City (
2,000 earthquake victims were eligible to collect the subsidy in Nantou City (
Some of the residents collecting work aid funds in Nantou City wondered how they would get by on only a little more than NT$10,000 for a whole month.
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