The way the Republic of China (ROC) Centenary Foundation spent its NT$3.2 billion (US$105.2 million) budget and used the centennial celebration as a campaign tool was “astounding,” the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.
“The foundation’s allocation of funds was a mess. Anyone would be shocked when they read the details of the accounts,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) told a press conference.
The foundation had sanctioned and funded numerous events and activities that were either related to the centenary or organized by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates, Tsai alleged.
Among them, he said, the foundation provided NT$10 million to a National Palace Museum exhibition titled “Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV,” NT$23.5 million to the National Science Council’s future technology exhibition and NT$11 million for the Council of Agriculture’s “tree-planting month” campaign.
Even the Coast Guard Administration received NT$6 million for conducting maritime exercises and the Department of Health NT$33.5 million for a public health exhibition, Tsai added.
The Legislative Yuan agreed to the establishment of the foundation because the Presidential Office said at the time that the majority of the funding would come from private companies, Tsai said.
However, most of the actual funds came from state-owned or state-run firms, such as Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) and Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水), he said.
DPP Legislator Yen Yi-jin (葉宜津) displayed several posters of activities organized by KMT legislative candidates, with the names of state-run companies such as Taiwan Power Co and Taiwan Water Corp listed as sponsors.
“These government-funded or government-run companies claim that they were operating in the red, but they had the money to sponsor these events,” Yeh said.
She said these events were used as a campaign tool because they offered free tickets that were available at the campaign offices of KMT legislative candidates.
The DPP said in a separate press release that the “special exhibition on Taiwan’s economic development,” organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and which cost NT$140 million, was like the “second coming” of the Dreamers rock musical.
The exhibition, staged in four cities, was a propaganda tool to promote President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) achievements, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
In response, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠) said the exhibition was different from Dreamers in that its funding did not come from the ROC Centenary Foundation, but official budgets approved by the legislature.
The exhibition was meaningful because it was educational, he added.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary