The Taipei City Government yesterday released documents saying that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had made NT$68.09 million (US$2.09 million) in donations, describing it as proof that the mayor had never pocketed money from his special allowance fund.
A total of 236 donations had been made to public welfare groups, charity organizations, cultural and educational groups during Ma's eight-year term, city government officials said. More than 87 percent of the amount had been given to 53 public welfare groups, according to the city government.
"We checked donation receipts and transfer receipts and did not find any records of Ma pocketing the money from those donations," Chou Chih-cheng (
More than 99 percent of the donation receipts were examined, and only two donations, totaling NT$16,670, were made without receipts. Officials said that one of these donations was made to the family of a deceased reporter, and the other was given to an association that collects public welfare lottery receipts and uses the funds for charity work. In addition, about NT$2 million in donations were excluded from the total because complete receipts were unavailable, Chou said.
Although Chou, Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) and Taipei City Government Secretariat Director Lee Sush-der(李述德) gathered to outline the donation records, Ma was absent, opting to attend municipal events instead.
Although the accountant and the city government made public the total amount of donations and divided it by groups which received the money, they failed to clarify the portions of the donations that came from Ma's mayoral special allowance.
"What matters is not where the money came from, but where the money goes and how it is used," Lee said. "The mayor made donations totaling NT$68 million, which is much more than his mayoral allowance of NT$15 million ... He didn't pocket any money from the fund."
King cited the Ministry of Justice, which said on Wednesday that the special allowance fund should be seen as a "substantial subsidy" (
"It's also wrong to accuse Ma of profiting by donating money to his own foundations. Bill Gates also donated money to set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ... What matters is whether or not the foundation is doing charity work," he added.
Lee joined King in defending Ma over accusations that Ma had put the funds into his personal account and used the allowance as his own money.
While the allowance should be used for public affairs, with the mayor paying bills with his own money first and applying for reimbursement later, the reimbursement wired to Ma's account from the government should be treated as his own money, Lee said.
Although the donation records showed that Ma had donated more than NT$68 million, a closer examination found that excluding the NT$47 million mayoral election subsidies, NT$5 million election balance and trust fund and a NT$11 million donation from his personal account made last month, Ma only made about NT$5 million in donations with his allowance fund during his eight-year term.
In response to accusations that Ma had wired his allowance to his wife, Chou Mei-chin (
Asked to comment on criticism of the city government's crisis management abilities, King said the city government had shown caution and wanted to examine the evidence thoroughly before going public.
He added that the city government had held yesterday's press conference largely to "satisfy the media's curiosity."
"We also want to prove with numbers and facts that Mayor Ma has acted with integrity from the beginning," he said.
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