DPP lawmakers accused officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday of plundering a government fund and using the money for personal purposes.
DPP lawmakers Tang Huo-shen (湯火聖), Lin Yu-sheng (林育生) and Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) made the accusations during a news conference yesterday morning.
They said that over the years, officials from the ROC Textile Industry Association have misused the Textile Industry Reform Fund, money compulsorily collected from local textile companies.
"By taking advantage of their positions, those association officials have misused interest payments earned from the fund for personal ends," Tang told reporters. "For example, they used the money to pay for overseas travel and other public relations costs."
The fund has accumulated nearly NT$600 million in assets.
Tang said that despite the introduction of trade rules in 1994, officials have failed to turn the fund over to the state treasury.
The association, established in 1977 as part of the government's effort to help the industry expand, consists of 45 board directors and 15 supervisory board directors.
But Lin said many of them concurrently work as board members despite potential conflicts of interests.
He noted that association officials took a trip to China in 1990 in the hope of setting up a distribution center there.
"They knew very well that neither government across the Strait would allow the establishment of such a center," Lin said. "But they went ahead and made the trip with money from the fund anyway."
The DPP lawmakers said they suspected that Wu Wen-ya (吳文雅), director-general of Bureau of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, was behind the "unworthy" fact-finding trips.
Wu and his counterpart at the Industrial Development Bureau are board directors of the association, which counts on the government for more than 50 percent of its budget this year.
Su said the association amended its charter last year, allowing its board members to use the fund itself, in addition to its interest payments, to fill budget shortfalls, among other things.
The lawmaker expressed worries that the association would eat up the fund in five years, if no measures were taken to stop the practice.
All three urged the Control Yuan to probe the matter.
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