Pan-blue-camp lawmakers and academics accused the government yesterday of doctoring financial reports and embezzling public assets, claiming the country is "almost broke" as a result of rampant corruption and mismanagement.
People First Party Legislator Liu Yi-ju (劉憶如) told a meeting for the legislature and government officials that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government used six tricks to make false financial statements over the past six years.
He said it had exaggerated tax revenues, fabricated income from selling government-owned shares in state enterprises, wasted public money, doctored accounting items, made complicated reinvestments to evade legislative auditing and hid key information and then endorsed this behavior.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
She quoted international rating agencies as claiming that Taiwan's financial rankings dropped to 79th in the world -- and that government debt was running at NT$11 trillion (US$337.5 billion) or 110 percent of GDP, as opposed to the government's claims of 39 percent.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was not telling the truth when he said Taiwan could afford to borrow "twice as much" as it has, the lawmaker said.
The meeting was held to review an opposition-initiated motion to recall the president. DPP lawmakers and most government officials boycotted the meeting.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) said NT$4.61 trillion in public assets had been improperly removed through merging state-owned banks with private holding companies, BOT projects, privatization of state-owned businesses and "sheer waste" by government departments.
People First Party Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
The signs were a reference to the president's decision to bypass the legislature in rebutting opposition charges.
Yesterday's legislative committee meeting was second in a series of four before the legislature votes on the recall motion next Tuesday.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS