Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (陳唐山) admitted yesterday that his ministry had doled out US$250,000 in aid to its diplomatic ally, Costa Rica, but that it had no idea what the Costa Rican government did with the money.
"There is nothing we can do about the money we gave them, even if the Costa Rican government used it for purposes different from what they originally told us," Chen told reporters yesterday morning after attending the first weekly meeting of the new Cabinet.
According to Chen, the foreign ministry paid its Latin American ally US$250,000 last year as promised after the Costa Rican government said it would use the money to promote tourism and execute economic initiatives.
A Costa Rican newspaper, La Nacion, quoted Costa Rican Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar as saying on Monday that the Taiwanese government had paid some US$22,000 per month to the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs to cover the salaries of employees. The payments had been made via a private group, the Association for the Development of Foreign Policy of Costa Rica.
La Nacion also reported that the foundation has handled, with no apparent supervision, a total of US$4.8 million in donations from Taiwan's government, which was used to pay salaries or bonuses to foreign ministry officials.
Many Costa Rican lawmakers were outraged that foreign funds were allegedly being handled by a private foundation with no government supervision.
Despite Taiwan's foreign ministry dismissing the report as a "groundless rumor," Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco admitted on Tuesday that Taiwan's money had paid for a government job for his daughter.
Pacheco said that his daughter, Elsa Pacheco, who works at the Costa Rican embassy in Mexico, was being paid US$1,500 a month from funds Taiwan gave to the foreign ministry.
Pacheco also told reporters that his daughter had worked at the embassy as a volunteer but could no longer afford to continue for free, so he found a way for her to receive a salary.
Tovar said the practice of establishing private foundations connected to the foreign ministry dated back to 1986. He ac-knowledged that some kind of oversight would be in order.
Chen yesterday also revealed that Taiwan's foreign ministry was considering a NT$4.2 billion (US$125 million) loan to another diplomatic ally in Latin America, Paraguay.
"They've made various financial requests and a NT$4.2 billion loan is one of them," Chen said. "We will not make a final decision until we have fully evaluated the request."
Chen hinted that the foreign ministry might eventually grant the Paraguayans their wish, because Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte Frutos had showed a tremendous amount of goodwill toward the country by attending the inauguration ceremony of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
"We will seriously consider the request as long as it's affordable and deemed conducive to the best interests of both countries," Chen said. "We once accepted aid from the US government during the 1950s; now it's time for us to offer a helping hand to other needy countries, especially to our diplomatic allies."
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