Thu, Sep 26, 2002 page3

• KMT to put assets in trust, DPP unimpressed

  HOLLOW GESTURE The KMT promised to come clean and put its party-run businesses in a trust, but the DPP said that wouldn't solve anything because the KMT will still be able to profit from these assets

  • By Stephanie Low / STAFF REPORTER
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  Facing deep-seated public skepticism over the legitimacy of its assets, the KMT has drafted a detailed plan to return some of the assets and help with reforms to ensure no political party can amass so many assets in the future. But the DPP argued the KMT's plan to put its businesses into a trust is inconsistent with the principle that political parties cannot run commercial businesses, as the KMT will still profit from these businesses after they are put into a trust.

  According to the KMT's plan, the party will help to push through the Political Party Law within this legislative session, under which political parties would be banned from running commercial businesses. It will also dispose of real estate that it had acquired through controversial means.

  

  KMT Chairman Lien Chan speaks at the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday.

  PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  It said it will donate these properties for public-interest purposes as soon as possible.

  "The KMT will make an all-out effort to pass the Political Party Law and speed up our effort to put our party-run businesses in a trust. The KMT will stop running commercial businesses," announced KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) at a weekly meeting of the party's Central Standing Committee yesterday.

  As the first step, the KMT will hire lawyers and accountants to conduct a comprehensive examination of its assets -- including the businesses run by the party -- so as to protect the party's rights and clarify issues that the public is skeptical about, according to Lien.

  Lien said the party will take the initiative to donate a total of 110 parcels of land and 42 buildings, which had been obtained by donation or appropriation from the government during the martial-law era.

  Most of the land and buildings are sites where KMT local branch offices are located.

  "We will soon hand over the details [of this real estate] to our lawyers so that they can study the legal procedure and steps to make the donation," Lien said.

  Lien said that ownership of the real estate was transferred to the KMT in the past because the government wanted to strengthen its public services through the KMT, in order to augment struggling government agencies.

  Lien said the party has legal ownership of the properties, as they were acquired through administrative procedures.

  However, Lien admitted that such a practice is not acceptable to the public if viewed from today's standards.

  "By dealing resolutely with a burden caused by historical factors, we are bidding farewell to a bygone era and starting to build a new image. We will judge ourselves with a high moral standard," Lien said.

  Lien first proposed ending the party's involvement in commercial businesses and putting the party's assets into a trust during the run-up to the 2000 presidential election.

  Chang Che-shen (張哲琛), director-general of the KMT's Administration and Management Committee, said the party has so far put NT$2 billion in cash and government bonds into a trust.

  By the end of this year, the party should be able to complete the necessary procedures to put the Central Investment Holding Company -- the biggest business run by the party -- into a trust, Chang said.

  DPP Deputy Secretary-General Michael You (游盈隆) said the KMT should make the accounts of its assets public and cooperate with the DPP to push through legislation related to the assets of political parties as soon as possible -- if it is to face up to the problem in a responsible manner.

  You argued that putting the KMT-run businesses into a trust is inconsistent with the principle that political parties cannot run commercial businesses, as the KMT will still gain profit from these businesses after they are put into a trust.

  The Cabinet has recently completed its draft version of the Political Party Law and a draft for a law dealing with assets "obtained inappropriately" by political parties.

  The KMT's draft version of the Political Party Law is different from the Cabinet's in that it would allow political parties to hold stakes of no more than 40 percent in a business, while prohibiting them from running a commercial business directly.

  In the Cabinet's draft, political parties would be banned from running and investing in commercial businesses.
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