The law governing political donations (政治獻金法) should set a ceiling on amounts of legal donations and establish strict and clear regulations on various forms of donations, the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus said yesterday.
The PFP caucus said that politicians should be able to receive donations only during campaigns and should not be allowed to raise more money than they are allowed to spend on campaigns.
Further, the PFP caucus wants to set regulations on "volunteers" at politicians' offices so that they cannot be paid by corporations.
PFP Legislator Lee Yong-ping (
"We also decided that foundations with charitable status should not be able to donate to politicians, so that corporations cannot circumvent the donation law by delivering money through their charitable foundations," Lee said.
"There is still the problem of the politicians' supporters' clubs. Often the clubs procure funds for various uses. We want to restrict such clubs to being active only during the campaign periods, and prevent them from procuring funds independently. All the funds they procure should be counted as the politicians' and should be managed accordingly," Lee said.
Lee's fellow legislator Feng Ting-kuo (
"`Volunteers paid by corporations should not be allowed. Further, when a company is bidding for the government's projects, its affiliate companies should not be allowed to make donations to the politicians involved, even if these companies are not involved in the bidding," Feng said.
The PFP caucus also says that the lobbying bill (
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