Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday applauded a preliminary decision by lawmakers to decriminalize the ill-regulated use of special allowance funds, which has caused legal problems for several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials.
“I respect the legislature’s decision. It would be good if the ‘historical glitch’ could be resolved,” Wu said of an amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法), which stipulates that the use of special allowance funds by government chiefs and deputy chiefs until the end of 2006 should be considered legal — with the exception of presidential state affairs funds.
The draft amendment passed a preliminary review by the legislature’s Finance Committee on Monday and could be put to a second and third reading in the legislature by the end of this month.
Wu was charged with misusing special allowance funds during his term as Kaohsiung mayor.
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said the move appeared to be aimed at clearing Wu, who it is rumored could pair up with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for next year’s KMT presidential ticket.
“Could it be that the amendment is being passed now so that it can clear the name of someone in the KMT who could be the next candidate for vice president?” Lu was quoted as saying by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Responding to Lu’s remarks, Wu said he was “100 percent innocent” in the matter and quoted former premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) description of the problem as a “historical glitch.”
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the amendment was not tailor-made for any specific individual, as 7,500 officials were involved in special allowances funds cases.
Wang said the nation could not afford the judicial resources needed to investigate all the cases, which would involve investigating “tens of thousands of receipts” for a single person.
Yu Wen (余文), President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) secretary during Ma’s term as Taipei mayor, said yesterday that it was “unjust” that he was jailed for mishandling Ma’s special allowance fund, as his actions would no longer be criminal if the legislature passes.
Yu served nine months in jail for using fraudulent receipts to claim reimbursements from Ma’s special mayoral allowance fund.
Prosecutors had charged that with Yu’s help, Ma embezzled more than NT$12 million (US$366,000) from the fund. Ma was found not guilty, but Yu was found to have mishandled receipts.
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