Bickering over Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) assets continued yesterday with KMT legislators accusing the Ministry of Finance of violating its impartiality to help the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) win a majority of seats in the legislative elections.
KMT majority whip Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) made the accusations while questioning Lee Ruey-tsang (李瑞倉), director-general of the finance ministry's National Property Bureau at a press conference yesterday.
Huang questioned ministry plans to create a reward system for employees who track down KMT assets.
He said the ministry plans to set aside NT$1 million in bonuses for employees that help its investigations.
"In all of the finance ministry's other property investigations, there were never special rules creating a reward system for participants. Government employees are supposed to be neutral; the ministry is clearly doing this to accommodate the DPP and its administration," Huang said.
Lee said that the reward system was understandable, given that the investigation into the KMT's assets was proving difficult in light of the long history and murkiness surrounding much of the contested property and many of the KMT's enterprises.
Noting the KMT's lack of cooperation during previous negotiations on the issue, Lee said that Huang's focus on the proposed reward system was a "fuss over a trifling matter."
In addition, Huang's insinuations that the ministry's neutrality had been compromised obviously meant that the KMT doesn't want the public service sector's vote at the end of the year, Lee said.
Huang replied: "We don't want votes from people [in the public sector] like you."
Another focus of the conference was an article recently added to a bill regarding assets improperly obtained by political parties (政黨不當取得財產處理條例).
The article calls for the government to investigate and seek compensation from enterprises formerly affiliated with the KMT.
This clearly falls outside the scope of an agreement the KMT had made with the ministry, Huang said.
"During negotiations in March, we agreed that the property in question fell into four categories. This article deals with businesses that have long been out of the hands of the KMT and is outside the agreement that we reached," he said.
In response, Lee said that the March agreement was incomplete, given that the KMT had consistently refused to negotiate on other assets the ministry believes to be contestable.
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