Siew wants relief funds disbursed fast

Premier Vincent Siew's (蕭萬長) promise to distribute relief funds to 921 earthquake victims by tomorrow is destined to fail, elected representatives said yesterday, calling the attempt to please upset families a "mission impossible."

"Judging from the speed of current distribution, at least two-thirds of Nantou County residents have not received any household compensation from the government. This is like "mission impossible" for the Cabinet to meet its deadline of Saturday to keep its promise," said DPP legislator, Tsai Huang-Liang (1/22?瑯).

The premier's statement has provoked a strong backlash from local authorities and township mayors who say Siew has overlooked procedural realities.

"Slow work yields fine products," said Lin Ming-jen (林明L), the mayor of Chichi (集集鎮) in Nantou County. "The cabinet wants us to distribute compensation as soon as possible, however, we have certain procedures to follow. Otherwise, if we give out money to those who are not qualified to receive it, we may find it more difficult to ask for the money back, which would get us into trouble."

"I also want to appeal to the central government, please, don't push us so hard. We have done everything we can to cooperate with Siew's policy, but the deadline is really too pressing,'' Lin said.

But according to statistics released by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics the problem is not with the central government.

The directorate said yesterday that it had already allotted approximately NT$13.4 billion to local authorities, but actual relief funds obtained by survivors was less than NT$3.7 billion.

"If statistics talk, the efficiency of distribution is only in the neighborhood of 10 percent. This reflects a large gap between the central and local governments," said deputy director-general of the accounting office, Liu San-chi (劉?T綺). "Under Siew's program, we hope all the township and boroughs will do their best to cooperate.''

During a post-disaster reconstruction commission meeting on Monday, Siew said that "except for questionable relief applications, I urge related ministries to finish issuing relief funds to earthquake survivors by the weekend.''