The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee’s allegations that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has chosen not to comply with a compensation order for members’ improper pension claims was just mudslinging, the KMT said in a news release yesterday.
It was ordered to pay NT$6.89 million (US$222,366) in compensation for allowing members to combine their years of party and public service to qualify for pensions, not the NT$5.69 million as some media have reported, it said.
“At the moment, the party has only about NT$6.63 million in its frozen Bank SinoPac account, which is not enough to pay the compensation,” the KMT said.
Asset committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) on Monday questioned whether the KMT was trying to avoid paying the compensation.
The KMT apparently had enough money in its bank accounts and it could ask the committee for access to its frozen savings for legitimate reasons, Shih said.
The KMT said that adding the years worked for the party to years spent in public service when applying for a pension conformed with the laws at the time.
The party could not agree with the government’s decision to pass a retroactive act to recover pension payments it now considered excessive, the KMT said.
However, the party would pay what it is legally required to do, despite its financial straits, which have been aggravated by the committee’s orders for payments of more than NT$2 billion for the party’s handling of its assets, the statement said.
The public should realize that it has other bills to pay as well, such as government taxes, it added.
“Given the party’s current financial situation, the combined payments are beyond what we can bear,” it said.
Allowing KMT members to combine their years of party and government work was up to the discretion of the Ministry of Civil Service and local governments, the party said.
The committee’s meddling in the affairs of other government bodies was “despicable” and an apparent attempt to undermine the KMT’s chances of victory in the Nov. 24 elections, the party said.
The KMT would ask the committee to allow it to use cash dividends from the KMT-affiliated Central Investment Co and Hsinyutai Co to pay the compensation demands, it said.
Ministry of Civil Service data showed the central government has lost a total of NT$219.32 million from excess pension claims.
As of Aug. 10, the deadline for repaying the excess claims, the ministry had only recovered NT$52.61 million from three political organizations and two retired political appointees.
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