A Cabinet official yesterday dismissed accusations that the government has presented misleading information about its reconstruction projects in the areas hit hardest by the Sept. 21, 1999, earthquake.
"It's so unfair to make such an accusation, especially for those who have devoted themselves to the reconstruction projects over the years," said Kuo Yao-chi (
Kuo added that it was impossible to lie about the progress of the reconstruction projects because the public and the media could see for themselves what had been achieved.
"Take the reconstruction projects for schools, for example. Out of the 293 schools which need to be rebuilt, 286 of them have been completed, five are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and in two cases a location has not yet been found," Kuo said.
Kuo was responding to criticism from the Legislative Yuan's Supervising Group for the 921 Reconstruction Projects.
The group presented statistics yesterday morning suggesting the government's reconstruction projects were falling behind schedule.
According to the report, 1,546 schools, instead of 293, were damaged in the earthquake and required reconstruction, of which only 281, or about 26 percent, had been rebuilt.
The report also claimed that the government had earmarked more than NT$146 billion for reconstruction projects over the past three years and distributed it to county governments, which are responsible for the reconstruction work.
However, only 21.9 percent of the budget earmarked for reconstruction projects between September 2000 and August last year had been used and none of the budget earmarked for September last year to August this year had been spent, the report said.
The group also accused the government of making up bloated figures and presenting them to President Chen Shui-bian (
Kuo denied the claims the budgeted money had not been spent. She said that since the government promised to take back money for reconstruction from the county governments if they failed to follow the timetable, most of the reconstruction projects were now on schedule.
"I don't know why the government would allow the money earmarked for reconstruction to sit idle if local governments feel that there's no immediate need to use it," Kuo said.
Responding to the group's claim that officials of the Cabinet's reconstruction commission earn a monthly salary of NT$2.87 million, Kuo said that she receives only NT$5,000 on top of her salary as a minister without portfolio to lead the Cabinet's Public Construction Commission.
Statistics made available by the 921 Reconstruction Commission yesterday showed that as of Aug. 31, 26,608 out of 38,935 houses leveled during the quake had been rebuilt.
In addition, 2,384 vacant temporary houses out of 5,854 have been dismantled to ensure public security and hygiene.
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