The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday proposed a draft “nonprofit corporation act” aimed at tightening oversight of government-funded corporations.
While the development of nonprofit corporations that are partially funded by the government has been on the rise, there are few laws regulating such entities, leading to the privatization of many, which results in public assets becoming private property, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
“Corporations that derive more than 50 percent of their funding from the government have to be supervised by the Legislative Yuan, but many corporations have escaped government oversight by lowering the amount of government funding,” Hsu said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“Some government-funded corporations were transformed into private companies, and government funds became company assets at taxpayers’ expense,” he said.
The draft act would allow the government to increase its holding in a public-turned-private corporation to restore it to a public corporation, Hsu said, citing the privatization of the CTCI Foundation, which was founded by state-run oil refiner CPC Corp, Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) and Taiwan Sugar Corp in 1959, but later shed government control by diluting its share of state funding.
A corporation over which the government has de facto control is recognized as a public entity answerable to the government even if government funding is less than 50 percent of the firm’s budget, according the draft act, Hsu said.
Examples include the Institute for Information Industry, the Commerce Development Research Institute, the Printing Technology Research Institute and the Taiwan Design Center, he said.
“The draft act would also prohibit sinecure appointment by temporarily stripping the pensions of retired government officials who work for public corporations,” Hsu said.
The party also raised a motion to order Taipower to report to the Legislative Yuan before a reactor of the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City is reactivated.
The plant’s No. 2 reactor automatically shut down after a generator disconnection on May 16 for reasons that are not yet clear.
Parts of the power generation system were destroyed in the incident.
“I saw three surge arresters that were completely burned out, while other facilities were damaged by what appeared to be a blast,” NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said. “Taipower has not yet clarified the cause of the generator disconnection or the blast, so we ask the company to make a formal report to the legislature before the Atomic Energy Council will approve reactivation.”
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS