Legislators accuse KMT bigwigs of violating the law

A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday claimed that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Kuan Chong (關中) and Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) violated the law by counting the years they worked for the KMT before entering public office toward their employment in the civil service, thereby qualifying for generous retirement benefits.

The legislator, Wu Bing-ray (吳秉叡), submitted his accusation in writing to Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao (吳英昭) at a legislative judiciary committee meeting yesterday. Wu promised to look into how many retired civil servants are counting the time they worked for the KMT toward their time employed in the civil service.

"By adding the years they worked for the KMT to the years they worked for the government, some retired officials have violated the law," Wu Bing-ray said.

He said that according to law, political appointees who have held office for more than 15 years are eligible to receive generous monthly pensions.

But of Kuan's declared 26 years of "civil service," the legislator said, 10 years was in fact spent in the KMT's service. If those years were subtracted, Kuan actually spent only 14 years in the civil service and did not qualify for the official pension.

Similarly, Wu Bing-ray said, the 10 years Hu worked for the KMT in his total "24 years of civil service" should render him unable to receive the pension.

Wu said that while Kuan had illegally received a pension of NT$2.49 million (US$74,300) annually, Hu has received NT$1.95 million per year.

"The KMT is clearly mixing the contents of party coffers with those of the state and taxpayers are bearing the burden," Wu said.

The DPP lawmakers singled out former Presidential Office secretary-general Ding Mao-shih (丁懋時), former Judicial Yuan president Shih Chi-yang (施啟揚), former minister of transportation and communications Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正), former Control Yuan president Wang Tso-jung (王作榮) and Loh I-cheng (陸以正), a former ambassador to South Africa, as having been violating the law in the same manner.