Two female government agency heads came under fire yesterday at the annual legislative budget review session when the Education and Culture Committee raised questions over alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.
Council of Cultural Affairs (CCA) Chairwoman Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) was criticized for "brown nosing" the central government after her agency handed NT$6 million (US$184,000) to the Government Information Office (GIO) last month, coinciding with the "UN for Taiwan" initiative.
"You claim the NT$6 million went to a general fund to promote Taiwan's image. But did you thoroughly examine how the GIO used the money? How do you know it did not use it for the UN bid?" Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Diane Lee (李慶安) asked.
Lee said the KMT could freeze the entire budget.
KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (
Wong, a former Democratic Progressive Party legislator and Changhua County commissioner, vehemently denied the allegations, saying the CCA had never given any money to the GIO to fund the UN initiative.
"The GIO never asked the CCA to give a single penny toward the UN bid," Wong said.
Lee accused the CCA of being "daring, ridiculous and extravagant" for proposing a four-year budget when it could not be sure the government would still be in power after the election in March.
People First Party Legislator Cheng Chin-ling (鄭金玲) said she was reluctant to sign the proposed budget because her research had showed that most of the CCA's money was directed at the infrastructure of cultural institutions rather than toward improving and enriching the content offered by those institutions.
"Finding a CCA-sponsored museum or culture center is not difficult. However, those that are being fully utilized or well attended are hard to find. Rather than attracting museum-goers, the buildings have become mosquito breeding grounds," Cheng said.
Wong hit back, saying that more than 78 percent of CCA-sponsored institutions were open for at least 249 days a year, proof that they were well-attended.
National Palace Museum Director Lin Mun-lee (林曼麗) was also criticized for allegedly mismanaging the museum.
"Weeks after its grand reopening, the museum was forced to shut down parts of the third and fifth floors because they were reportedly infested by bugs. Even after NT$800 million in renovations, there are still reports of leaky ceilings, moldy floors, broken tiles and unsafe walls," Hung said.
Hung also questioned the decision by the museum to establish a branch in the south when the main branch is already poorly run.
Lin admitted that the museum had encountered several construction problems following the renovations and vowed to pay close attention to upcoming construction projects.
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