According to Article 1 of the Statute on Encouraging and Rewarding Cultural and Art Enterprises (文化藝術獎助條例), the National Culture and Arts Foundation was established to nurture the cultural industry and arts; to provide support for cultural and artistic events; to protect workers in the sector; and to foster the establishment of a national culture to raise the standard of culture and the arts in Taiwan.
The legislature passed the statute on Oct. 17, 1994.
That same year, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) unveiled the Act Governing the Establishment of the National Culture and Arts Foundation (國家文化藝術基金會設置條例), Article 24 of which clearly stipulates that the foundation is to be financed to the tune of NT$10 billion (US$325.2 million at current exchange rates) over the course of a decade, with the funds coming from private donations, from the budgets of the competent authority — which was then the Bureau of Cultural Affairs and is now the Ministry of Culture — and from returns on investments made by the foundation.
However, due to a threshold set by the Cabinet, the contribution made by the competent authority to the fund of NT$10 billion is subject to a ceiling of just NT$6 billion, leaving the other NT$4 billion to come from private donations.
Since private donations have hardly been pouring in, the foundation has an annual budgetary shortfall of hundreds of millions. The fund is already experiencing a serious lack of financing and before another four years are up, the foundation will not even be able to afford the certificates for winners of arts and cultural awards.
However, the law is very clear on the point that, regardless of how much money is forthcoming from private donations, the government must raise the entire fund within 10 years.
In the two decades that have passed since the end of former vice president Lien Chan’s (連戰) premiership — a span of 20 years in which there have been two transitions of political power — it is the NT$4 billion that the Cabinet has denied the foundation that is the primary cause for the gaping hole in the foundation’s funds.
Li Kwei-chien (李魁賢), the foundation’s fourth director, remonstrated the government over this, saying that it ought to abide by the law and make up the financial shortfall, but unfortunately, his efforts were frustrated.
Meanwhile, the Control Yuan has been carrying on, apparently blissfully unaware of the Cabinet’s behavior, even though this clearly runs counter to the law, and has made absolutely no effort to investigate. This constitutes a serious dereliction of the Control Yuan’s duty and a failure to perform its function.
Nobody believes that NT$4 billion can be raised from private donations alone. So what exactly was the government playing at in setting the ceiling for its contribution at NT$6 billion?
Even if Lien had felt at the time when the restriction was set that a fund of NT$10 billion was excessive for the foundation, and consequently made an arbitrary division between government and private responsibility, successive premiers have glossed over the law and failed to make up the funding shortfall despite the expiration of the legally set deadline long ago.
So how is the art world supposed to respond to this?
It is of paramount importance that the Control Yuan conduct an investigation into this matter, stop allowing the Cabinet to continue operating outside of the law and make it return the full NT$4 billion, plus interest, it should be paying into the foundation’s fund, the sooner the better.
Tseng Dau-hsiong is an opera director and a winner of the 2011 National Award for Arts.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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