The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considering directly transferring public donations for Japanese earthquake victims to the Japanese Red Cross Society after the local chapter came under fire over its slow handling of the relief funds.
The ministry, which handed over government donations of NT$100 million (US$3.44 million) to the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (ROC) last month, had previously said it hoped public donations — totaling NT$272 million — would be handled in the same manner.
However, amid growing public criticism over the delay in the local Red Cross’ transfer of the funds to Japan, the ministry said yesterday that it was now considering alternatives.
“We do not rule out having the [Taipei Economic and Cultural] Representative Office in Tokyo transfer the donations to Japan,” Wu Rong-chuan (吳榮泉), vice chairman of the ministry’s NGO Affairs Commission, told a regular press conference.
The ministry would wire the donations to Japan “in a speedy and direct manner” to meet public expectations, as “we know people hope the money they contributed will be delivered to Japan in the shortest time possible,” he said.
The special donations account opened by the ministry on March 11 soon after the massive earthquake struck northeast Japan will be operational until May 30.
Wu said the ministry would transfer the first batch of donations in the coming days, while the remainder would be transferred to Japan after the donation account closes next month.
Aside from cash donations, Wu said the ministry had delivered 557.85 tonnes out of the 558 tonnes of relief material donated by the public.
Governmental data showed that as of yesterday, Taiwan had raised a total of NT$4.01 billion in relief funds, with NT$3.657 billion coming from nine private institutions and NT$392.8 million from 14 government agencies.
Red Cross Society of the ROC deputy secretary-general Robert Hsieh (謝昭隆) said on Monday the organization could transfer the rest of the donations to Japan all at once after the organization came under heavy criticism for disbursing only US$15 million to Japan as of Wednesday last week, about a quarter of the NT$1.87 billion in donations it has received.
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