The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee unfroze NT$56 million (US$1.75 million) of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) assets to allow the party to pay the salaries of its workers, committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said yesterday.
The committee in September last year froze many of the KMT’s financial assets as part of an investigation, including banning withdrawals from Bank SinoPac accounts and freezing nine cashier’s checks worth NT$52 million each.
The KMT has since ceased paying salaries, as well as insurance and pension payments, to its employees, saying that the freezing of its accounts — which the party contends was unlawful — has rendered it unable to pay its workers.
Shih said that following the committee’s review of the KMT’s claims, it on Friday delivered documents to the KMT, authorizing a check for NT$52 million to be drawn from the KMT’s Bank of Taiwan accout and a check for NT$4 million from its Bank SinoPac account, so that the party can meet its obligations.
The KMT last year requested that the committee lift the freeze on the party’s Bank SinoPac account to pay for the salaries owed for November last year and last month, in addition to labor and health insurance coverage and retirement pensions, totaling NT$56 million.
Although the party says that it does not need the committee’s authorization to transfer the money necessary to meet its legal obligations, it still submitted the request and relevant documents to the committee on Thursday, including a copy of its payroll.
Shih said the committee, after receiving the documents from the KMT, issued the letters of authorization allowing party officials to withdraw the money, but added that it has denied the party’s request to pay salaries for five party workers who were hired after the promulgation of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) in August last year.
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