Whistle-blowers who inform on a political party’s ill-gotten assets will be entitled to a reward of up to NT$100 million (US$3.17 million), the Cabinet’s Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said yesterday.
The committee, which held its first meeting yesterday, approved the financial incentive in the hope of encouraging whistle-blowing on ill-gotten party assets, committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said, adding that it had also established investigative and hearing procedures to handle ill-gotten party properties.
People who provide useful information about ill-gotten assets will be entitled to 1 percent of the reported assets’ value, Shih said, adding that the reward has been capped at NT$100 million.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) arrived in Taiwan in 1945 and since then it has acquired properties,” she said. “The public is waiting to see if the committee can trace all of the assets the KMT acquired, and this relies on tip-offs from the public.”
The reward, similar to the incentive used in the investigation into the procurement of six Lafayette-class frigates in 1991, is aimed at encouraging potential whistle-blowers, Shih said.
Meanwhile, the committee is to hold a hearing on Oct. 7 to determine whether the holding companies Central Investment Co (中央投資公司) and Hsinyutai Co (欣裕台股份有限公司) are KMT affiliate organizations.
“Although an official determination has yet to be made, the two companies are apparently run and owned by the KMT, according to the party’s public financial statements,” committee chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said.
The companies, which were founded by the KMT, have an estimated value of more than NT$15 billion and reportedly oversee a majority of the KMT’s assets.
Organizations that are presumed to be affiliates of the KMT should not dispose of their properties, and any disposition will be recognized as invalid if those organizations are recognized as KMT affiliates, Koo said.
The KMT is prohibited from using ill-gotten assets to pay for its expenses, including staff wages and pensions, utility bills and other miscellaneous fees, Koo said.
Although Koo and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) had previously spoken about the prohibition, yesterday’s meeting finalized the prohibition in legal terms.
“There are only three legal sources of funding for a political party: membership fees, government subsidies and political donations,” Koo said.
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