Residents whose homes were damaged in the 921 earthquake could be compensated as soon as next Tuesday -- if building inspectors can decide how to effectively complete their work, interior ministry officials said yesterday.
The only obstacle to compensation, local government officials have complained, is getting inspectors to assess buildings and classify them as "damaged" -- marked with a yellow sticker -- or "destroyed," marked with a red sticker.
At a public hearing yester-day, officials from the interior ministry's construction and planning administration said they had heard such complaints from village and neighborhood wardens.
The problem appears to be a lack of organization. Although groups of architects have volun-teered to do a task normally shouldered by civil servants, many are not receiving clear instructions on where they should be working, said Lee Yu-sheng (李玉生), deputy section chief of the administration's building regulation section.
"Some village chiefs sought help from professional civil engineers and architects in evaluating questionable structures. But some professionals were at a loss after reaching counties defined as disaster areas. Building management units were too busy with their own tasks," Lee said.
"Many professionals traveled to quake-stricken townships only to find that other groups of inspectors had already been there," he added.
The post-disaster reconstruction commission decided on Monday to clarify in writing the division of labor among various professional associations, Lee said.
"We'll finish the re-examination within a week, and then complete the compensation payments for those eligible," Lee said.
According to a Sept. 30 announcement by the interior ministry, residents whose houses have been classified as "destroyed" will receive NT$200,000, and those with "damaged" houses will get NT$100,000.
Legislators who have returned to disaster-struck constituencies called the examination process "chaotic."
"A problem facing residents in disaster areas is that they are confused by the different stickers attached to their homes," said Legislator Yang Chun-ying (楊瓊瓔). "Some people found red stickers on their homes in the morning, and yellow ones in the afternoon. They don't know which to believe."
"I also simply don't understand why the task of compensation hasn't been completed yet," she said.
Even Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) admitted at the legislature yesterday that nearly half of compensation funds have failed to reach those eligible, as borough wardens were in need of professional evaluation assistance.
Whatever the result of compensation plans, mortgages on damaged or destroyed homes will be carried by banks and not the government, finance officials confirmed yesterday.
"This is one major agreement we've reached after four rounds of negotiations with the banking sector," said Sean Chen (陳沖), administrative vice minister of finance. "The financial sector can only help those who are really in need."
But bankers said it is still difficult to estimate the full extent of the burden on the banking system as many databases were destroyed during the earthquake.
"Preliminary calculations are not accurate as many statistics are buried in the rubble," said James Lo (
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