The defense committee of the legislature yesterday visited the National Security Bureau (NSB) to investigate the bureau's use of an unaccounted-for NT$3 billion in secret funds since 1994.
However, the NSB refused to provide details on how the funds had been used, except for saying that they had been used for the sake of national security.
Lawmakers with the DPP condemned their PFP counterparts for exposing national secrets in an attempt to attack certain government officials alleged to have received subsidies from the NSB's secret funds. To avoid further further controversy over the issue, the NSB has decided to return the NT$3 billion in secret funds to the government as instructed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
PFP lawmaker Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), a member of the defense committee, told the media after a briefing by the NSB yesterday that he did not want to see the mystery surrounding the use of the secret funds left unsolved after the NSB returns them to the government.
"The funds were NT$3.6 billion in total in 1994. By 1996, the funds were reduced to NT$2.9 billion. Now the amount is back to over NT$3 billion," Chou said, quoting statistics provided by the NSB.
"The NSB says the funds have generated interest of around NT$600 million over the past eight years. We want to know how much of the interest has been used for unknown purposes. We would also like to find out whether interest income is only NT$600 million since the amount should have been higher if calculated in terms of the interest rates of the banks where the funds have been placed as fixed deposits," Chou said.
Chou and other PFP lawmakers suspect the NSB had used the interest on the secret funds or part of the principal to subsidize the Taiwan Research Institute, a private think tank headed by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), as well as government officials including Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文).
Tsai reportedly received millions of NT dollars from the NSB for research during her term as a national security advisor to Lee. Her work included the writing of a draft for Lee that defined cross-strait relations as "special state-to-state" in nature.
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