Members of a privately-run relief monitoring group yesterday rejected a call from Premier Vincent Siew to merge their operations with a cabinet-level fund management unit, saying such a move is "absolutely not necessary," although they did not rule out the possibility of cooperation between the two groups.
To help better coordinate post-quake rehabilitation efforts, an alliance of non-government organizations announced on Oct. 1 that they were forming a fund donation monitoring group called the National Civilian Post-quake Reconstruction Coordination and Review Alliance (the Civilian Alliance,
The group, headed by Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
Quickly responding to the move, the cabinet announced on Oct. 2 that it will also organize a fund management unit, called the 921 Disaster Relief Civil Donations Management Committee (
The alliance rejected not only Premier Siew's call for a merger but also a proposal by lawmakers to give the Civilian Alliance judicial powers.
"The key is that we are a grassroots civilian establishment. Our mentality is to stay neutral and away from governmental manipulation. Our purpose is to inspect and monitor financial statements and the fund distribution channels of our member groups and to make suggestions to our members and the government," said Chu Hai-yuan (瞿海源), spokesman for the Civilian Alliance.
As for the establishment of judicial powers, Chu said that such a move is not a democratic one, and they do not want to see an abuse of the Emergency Decree.
Lee Yuan-tseh (
National Cheng Chi University professor Yeh Young-ming (
"There is no immediate necessity for the two committees to merge because they have different natures and serve different purposes, even though they share the same goal," he said.
"It is much better off for them to coexist and cooperate with each other via a sound and smooth communication channel," he added.
Yeh voiced doubts about Lee holding two positions at the same time, being both the head of the Reconstruction Coordination and Review Alliance and the vice chairman of the Civil Donations Management Committee.
"There is a pool of talent out there specializing in different professional fields. I don't think it is necessary to have one person hold so many positions at a time," he said. "Besides, if Lee is busy with these two jobs, how is he expected to do a good job as the president of the Academia Sinica?"
According to a poll conducted on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5 by the United Daily News, about 84 percent of the general public support the establishment of the civilian alliance, and 57 percent of the public is worried about the way the government handles the funds it has collected.
Public groups have raised a tremendous amount of money, but many of them hesitate to become a member of the civilian alliance.
Among the well-known and prestigious charity groups who have hesitated to join up are the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation (
Yeh said that their hesitation is understandable because the nature, structure and function of the alliance is still vague.
"As soon as all these elements have straightened up, we will see more members joining. There is no point for us to speculate or even try to convince them to join the alliance," he said.
The alliance currently has about 50 group members.
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