Suspect donations avoiding scrutiny

Control Yuan Secretary-General Tu Shan-liang (杜善良) yesterday said that 170 suspicious contributions required further investigation to determine their legality.

But the legality of the contributions could not be investigated until new Control Yuan members were inaugurated, Tu said.

Although President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has referred a list of Control Yuan nominees for legislative screening, the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan has declined to review it on the grounds that the nominees include allegedly unqualified or unsuitable people.

The tenure of the previous Control Yuan expired on Jan. 31.

Tu also said that probes into suspicious political contributions have encountered three difficulties -- insufficient donor awareness of the Political Contributions Law (政治獻金卡); the absence of detailed enforcement rules; and the failure to authorize the Control Yuan to mete out "administrative penalties" to those who refuse to cooperate with the investigative process.

The Control Yuan's secretariat has come up with a package of proposals for revising the contributions law in future, Tu said.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) received NT$62.82 million (US$2 million) in political contributions ahead of last year's legislative elections, making him the top recipient, a Control Yuan report said.

Candidates for last December's legislative elections had to apply to the Control Yuan, the nation's supreme watchdog body, to open special accounts for receiving political donations prior to the poll.

A Control Yuan report released yesterday said that 345 candidates were eligible to open the special accounts, accounting for 89 percent of all candidates.

He was followed by Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), who received NT$30.68 million, and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who received NT$26.75 million.

Other top 10 recipients included DPP Legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮, NT$26.35 million); KMT Legislator Chu Feng-chih (朱鳳芝,NT$25.36 million); KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中,NT$24.90 million); DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (李文忠, NT$22.99 million); DPP Legislator Lai Ching-te (賴清德, NT$22.97 million); Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康, NT$22.65 million), a former DPP lawmaker who failed in his re-election bid; and DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴, NT$21.85 million).