The way the Republic of China (ROC) Centenary Foundation spent its NT$3.2 billion (US$105.2 million) budget and used the centennial celebration as a campaign tool was “astounding,” the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.
“The foundation’s allocation of funds was a mess. Anyone would be shocked when they read the details of the accounts,” DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) told a press conference.
The foundation had sanctioned and funded numerous events and activities that were either related to the centenary or organized by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative candidates, Tsai alleged.
Among them, he said, the foundation provided NT$10 million to a National Palace Museum exhibition titled “Emperor Kangxi and the Sun King Louis XIV,” NT$23.5 million to the National Science Council’s future technology exhibition and NT$11 million for the Council of Agriculture’s “tree-planting month” campaign.
Even the Coast Guard Administration received NT$6 million for conducting maritime exercises and the Department of Health NT$33.5 million for a public health exhibition, Tsai added.
The Legislative Yuan agreed to the establishment of the foundation because the Presidential Office said at the time that the majority of the funding would come from private companies, Tsai said.
However, most of the actual funds came from state-owned or state-run firms, such as Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司), Taiwan Fertilizer Co (台肥) and Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水), he said.
DPP Legislator Yen Yi-jin (葉宜津) displayed several posters of activities organized by KMT legislative candidates, with the names of state-run companies such as Taiwan Power Co and Taiwan Water Corp listed as sponsors.
“These government-funded or government-run companies claim that they were operating in the red, but they had the money to sponsor these events,” Yeh said.
She said these events were used as a campaign tool because they offered free tickets that were available at the campaign offices of KMT legislative candidates.
The DPP said in a separate press release that the “special exhibition on Taiwan’s economic development,” organized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and which cost NT$140 million, was like the “second coming” of the Dreamers rock musical.
The exhibition, staged in four cities, was a propaganda tool to promote President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) achievements, DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said.
In response, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Sheng-chung (林聖忠) said the exhibition was different from Dreamers in that its funding did not come from the ROC Centenary Foundation, but official budgets approved by the legislature.
The exhibition was meaningful because it was educational, he added.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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