The Ministry of the Interior yesterday promised NT$1.6 billion (US$53 million) in disaster relief funds to the Greater Kaohsiung Government, but asked that the municipal government provide detailed quotes on expected fund allocation for review by the ministry, as well as using the remainder of its annual disaster relief funds.
The municipal government had asked that the central government foot the bill for repairing city infrastructure, estimated to cost NT$1.9 billion after the series of gas explosions that left 30 people dead and more than 300 injured.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Jonathan Chen (陳純敬) said he had contacted Greater Kaohsiung Deputy mayor Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) on the issue.
Liu said the Construction and Planning Agency had contacted the city’s bureau of public construction on funding needs, adding that the city would forward a revised funding estimate for review.
Currently, the consensus is that the city government is to outsource construction in eight stages, to expedite reconstruction, Liu said.
Chen also said the ministry was inclined to downsize the funding, because the auditing process demands an itemized review.
However, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that the ministry still had more than NT$18 billion in special “Centrally Funded Tax Revenues” yet to be allocated.
Under the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), 6 percent of the centrally funded tax revenues — “special funding” — is to support local governments after emergencies or other major incidents, Ker said, adding that the cash should be used for the public.
Ker also said that the ministry still had NT$6.2 billion in its secondary reserve fund and NT$2 billion in disaster relief funds, totaling NT$26.2 billion for disaster relief across the nation.
“Unless the ministry intends to replicate Vice President Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) actions and use tens of billions to ‘secure votes’ before the elections,” now is the time to use the funds, Ker said.
Ker’s comments referred to the DPP allegations that Wu, during his time as premier, had abused the funds for campaign purposes prior to the 2012 presidential elections.
Ministry spokesman Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said the it would not comment on malicious allegations, adding that it had already told the municipal government that it would be willing to help.
“We ask only that the municipal government use its annual disaster relief funding, of which it retains NT$1.7 billion available for use,” Sun said. “We still have not seen any actual figures from the Kaohsiung City Government.”
Sun’s claim that the Kaohsiung still has NT$1.7 billion left for disaster relief this year was previously rejected by the city.
Additional reporting by Tseng Wei-chen and Chung Li-hua
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