The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday criticized the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee for rejecting its application to access part of its frozen assets to pay for its Dr Sun Yat-Sen Scholarship scheme.
“The assets committee has obviously prioritized political struggle over people’s interests, as evidenced by its repeated obstruction to something as uncontentious as a scholarship for overseas studies,” KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
Hung said the KMT has more than once explained to the assets committee that the scholarship is not used by the party, but pays for the living expenses of students studying overseas.
“The public will eventually see the assets committee for what it really is, which is [the Democratic Progressive Party’s] thug,” he added.
Hung was referring to a decision made at a meeting on Tuesday, in which the assets committee rejected the KMT’s request to unfreeze NT$16.9 million (US$569,791) from its Bank SinoPac account to fund the scholarship program on the grounds that it does not meet the legal criteria for unfreezing assets.
The scholarship, which has been offered to KMT members heading overseas to study since 1960, is limited to party members and the recipients are required to fulfill their duties as party members, and promote its policies and ideals, the committee said in a news release following the meeting.
“It does not meet the criteria of serving the public interest,” the assets committee said.
Under 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), there are six types of situations where the assets committee can grant a request to access frozen funds, one of which is if the money is intended for the improvement of the public interest.
The assets committee advised the KMT to pay for the scholarship from legitimate sources of income, or to ask successful individuals who have benefited from the scholarship to donate money to allow younger party members to pursue their studies.
According to KMT statistics, there were 214 recipients of the scholarship between 1960 and 2014, with each receiving NT$2.6 million.
Former recipients include former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤).
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang
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