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Councilors question Ma's selection of Taipei Fubon Bank

Pan-green Taipei City councilors yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of illegally favoring Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) by depositing all assets belonging to Taipei City Government's treasury with the bank when he was Taipei mayor.

Independent Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) told a press conference yesterday that on Nov. 30, 2006, Ma ordered the city government to deposit all of the city treasury's assets in Taipei Fubon Bank without going through any selection process or holding a public tender.

She said the city council rejected a city government proposal to deposit the city's assets in Taipei Fubon Bank in July 2005, and the council thought Ma would hold a public bid to decide which bank would take the city's assets.

By ordering the treasury to put the funds in Taipei Fubon Bank, Ma might have violated the Government Procurement Law (政府採購法) and illegally benefited the bank.

She questioned why Ma did not let his successor, Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) who took over in December 2006, make the decision.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) told the press conference that the city government handed over the treasury's assets to Taipei Fubon Bank in accordance with a 1975 contract it had with Taipei Bank -- a contract that should have long been abandoned.

Fubon Bank and Taipei Bank merged on Jan. 1, 2005, and the new entity named Taipei Fubon Bank.

The city government never signed a treaty with Taipei Fubon Bank after the merger, Lee said.

Based on the old contract, the city government did not incur interests from the deposits, Lee said.

Under Hau's administration, the city government has also failed to make clear whether it had ever been paid interest by the bank, and where the interest had gone, Lee said.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors Lai Su-ju (賴素如) and Li Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) rebutted the pan-green camp's claims, saying Taipei Fubon Bank had brought the city government about NT$360 million (US$11 million) in revenues every year since the merger and benefited city residents.

Lai said the bank merger was completed in accordance with the law, adding that the Ministry of Finance had deemed the merger a successful model for other banks to emulate.

Taipei City Government Secretariat Director Lee Sush-der (李述德), a former director of the city's finance department, said that Ma had done nothing wrong, adding that the city government decided to merge Taipei Bank with Fubon Bank through a public bid, and the Control Yuan had found no problems with the merger process when the DPP challenged it in 2002.

"It's a non-issue, and we've already explained the matter many times," Lee said yesterday when invited by KMT councilors to comment on the issue at the Taipei City Council.

Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and CNA
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