The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is entitled to file a request to gain access to its assets that were frozen on the presumption they are ill-gotten, should its legally obtained funds and properties prove insufficient to cover personnel expenses, the Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee said yesterday.
“If the KMT wants to access its frozen bank account, it should file an application in accordance with the committee’s regulations,” committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) told reporters in Taipei. “However, before filing such a request, the KMT should prepare a comprehensive overview of its funds and determine which parts are legally obtained and can therefore be mobilized.”
Should the KMT file a request, the committee would assess its reasonability and the need to protect KMT workers’ rights.
“Nevertheless, it is the KMT’s responsibility to address the problem of not being able to pay its employees,” Shih said.
Shih’s remarks followed the committee’s passage on Tuesday of a revision to the enforcement rules for Section 1, Article 9 of 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), which permits the use of assets presumed to be illicit to fulfill statutory obligations or when just cause is provided.
The change came amid KMT accusations that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government is carrying out a political vendetta against it, following the committee’s freezing of a KMT bank account late last month over the issuance of 10 checks worth a collective NT$520 million (US$16.5 million at the current exchange rate).
Under the revised rules, political parties and their affiliated organizations should only use party fees, political donations, campaign contributions and campaign subsidies to pay for their employees’ salaries, severance pay or pensions.
“However, after taking into consideration certain individual cases, the committee’s permission can be obtained should there be a reasonable need to tap into presumed ill-gotten assets to pay for such expenses,” the revision read.
Rejecting speculation that the revision would allow the unfreezing of the KMT’s ill-gotten assets, Shih said the committee was only laying down clear regulations to prompt the KMT to face its paycheck conundrum.
The issue has only been the subject of a war of words because the KMT has deemed payment of salaries a statutory obligation, rather than a contractual one, which is contrary to the committee’s definition, Shih said.
KMT Culture and Communications Committee director Chow Chi-wai (周志偉) told a morning news conference in Taipei that the party has yet to decide on filing an application.
However, hours later the KMT issued a statement criticizing the committee, calling it “an emperor governing political parties.”
“As the committee has flatly rejected the payment of salaries as being a statutory obligation, the KMT has filed an administrative lawsuit,” it said. “KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) is to negotiate with the committee in the hopes of resolving the matter in a fair, legal and reasonable manner.”
In related news, KMT Central Policy Committee director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) yesterday wrote an open letter to the KMT workers’ union urging its president, Liu Hui-lin (劉慧琳), to “point the gun outside the party instead of inside.”
“If the DPP was under attack by the KMT, DPP staffers would definitely surround the KMT rather than [President and DPP Chairperson] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文). However, Liu apparently thinks differently, because the target of her protests has been the KMT’s headquarters, and she has not dared to say anything critical of the DPP,” Alex Tsai said.
Liu recently threatened to take action should the KMT fail to pay the wages due at the end of this month.
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