As the Chinese New Year approaches, the central government has promised to lend a helping hand to local authorities who are facing a financial crisis because of the tremendous pressure placed on their budgets by the annual bonus for personnel.
Premier Vincent Siew (
"In terms of short-term financial management, local administrations in the past relied on the Taiwan Provincial Government when funds were too low. But following the downsizing of the provincial administration, the central government is simply following precedent in providing relief to local authorities," Siew said.
In some areas, Siew said authorities are being forced to depend on extra funds to achieve their original fiscal goals.
"I think the phenomenon [of providing short-term financial help] is quite normal,'' he said.
Hale S.C. Liu (
Liu said the central government has given top priority to five items in allocating financial aid: annual bonuses, February salaries, pensions, local construction funds needed before the Chinese New Year and local administration disbursements for January.
Liu said local governments have applied for over NT$40 billion in funds. However, he said, the cabinet is only willing to allot NT$21 billion.
"We have already granted as much as we can," Siew said. "The central government knows that resources are in short supply. Of course, local authorities consider this insufficient. So everybody is feeling the shortage,'' Siew said.
Both Siew and Liu said the central government cannot meet all the local government needs because of limited resources. Not all local officials agree however.
During a DGBAS conference yesterday with the financial chiefs from 25 local governments, some participants suggested the cabinet risks tarnishing its image if the central government fails to cover all the local financial shortages.
"In a bid to raise the necessary funds, two townships in my county are determined to sell their township halls. If the practice of selling public properties to meet urgent needs grows, it will probably have a negative impact on the government's image as a whole,'' said Lin Wen-ting (
Lin suggested adjusting the administrative division of labor in order to reduce personnel costs.
"To curtail the enormous personnel spending, I propose merging resourceless townships with more resourceful ones," Lin said.
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