Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday again refused to declare his assets, but said he would like to have his property audited on condition that independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) would do the same.
If Ko agrees to an audit, he would contact the Certified Public Accountants Association in Taipei to examine both his and Ko’s financial status and produce reports on their respective assets, Lien said.
Lien suggested that an audit should look at how he and Ko had used public funds during their stints as Taipei EasyCard Corp chairman and head of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Surgery respectively, the property declarations they both submitted to the Taipei City Election Commission, as well as any assets they would declare to the Control Yuan in the future.
Ko on Sept. 18 made public his tax records and statements pertaining to his personal bank account and two hospital bank accounts he had access to, partly in response to an allegation of corruption leveled by KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾), who accused him of money laundering via that account when serving as head of the hospital’s surgical intensive care unit. Ko called on Lien to make a similar disclosure.
Lien has not agreed to do so. On Monday night, while Lien was having an online chat with netizens, he said that he did not see any reason why he had to do something he was not legally obliged to do.
In response to media queries yesterday about his willingness to declare his assets to the public, Lien said that there was no credibility in financial statements released without being certified by a registered accountant.
He then urged Ko to agree to his proposal for an audit.
Meanwhile, Lien yesterday displayed a notice of a shareholders’ meeting he said he had received from Golden Meditech Holdings Limited last week to rebut the claims of netizens that he had profited from selling his personal holdings in the company’s Taiwan depositary receipts (TDRs).
Lien had vowed earlier that he would drop out of the mayoral race if it is proven that he has profited from any transaction of the company’s TDRs.
He was accused of cheating investors because TDRs of the Chinese healthcare company, which he has strongly endorsed, fell to nearly one-third of their initial value after the company listed the TDRs on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Lien’s campaign office yesterday unveiled a list of 108 professionals who act as Lien’s consultants, led by former Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp chairman and CEO Ou Chin-der (歐晉德), and including former minister of the interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) and former deputy secretary-general of the presidential office Liu Pao-kui (劉寶貴).
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