Former Miaoli County commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (劉政鴻) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday rebuffed criticism from incumbent Miaoli County Commissioner Hsu Yao-chang (徐耀昌) that Liu was “over-extravagant,” calling on Hsu to step down if he is is not up to the job.
Hsu, also a KMT member, was in Taipei on Friday to meet with Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), who he asked for a bailout because the county government is unable to pay its employees’ wages this month.
The commissioner attributed the “huge hole” of debt to the former county administration.
Liu yesterday said that there is no need for Hsu to “cry,” as he could “simply step down, if he is incompetent.”
Underscoring the importance of “financial management,” Liu said he had never fallen into arrears with employees’ salaries during his nine years in the Miaoli government.
Liu said that many of the development projects in the county were “golden eggs,” such as the special industrial zone of the High Speed Railway district, land with a value of about NT$10 billion (US$322 million) that he said could be used to secure a bank loan.
“I would not say it could be a loan of NT$7 billion or NT$8 billion, but at least NT$5 billion could be expected, with which the employees’ wages and pensions could definitely be covered,” he said.
Asked about the county’s massive debt, Liu said the official figure before he left office, “reviewed and ratified by the Ministry of Finance,” was NT$39.8 billion.
“The NT$64.8 billion reported elsewhere has project reserve funds and construction payables added,” Liu said.
“These will be paid with the money to be allotted by the central government and other agencies when the projects are done. They should not be counted as debt,” Liu said.
He also called into question Hsu’s work ethic.
“I’ve heard that [Hsu] goes to the office at 8:30am; I always started work from 7am,” he said.
Hsu said the people of Miaoli are watching.
“[As to the question of] who is competent or not, [I believe that] everyone has a standard in mind,” Hsu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) criticized Liu, saying that calling people incompetent was wrong.
“[Liu’s] competence lies in his capability to scam the central government,” Lin said.
Lin said there were at least six development projects that have either not begun or have had their contracts terminated, all of which allowed Liu’s county government to pocket millions in bonuses from the central government as “rewards for the promotion of private participation in infrastructure projects.”
According to a Next Magazine report in May, the county government accrued a debt of NT$64.8 billion, a NT$44.6 billion jump from NT$20.2 billion during Liu’s nine-year governance.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
 - Copy.jpg)
The Tourism Bureau plans to offer incentives to attract international tourists as the nation plans to gradually lift all travel restrictions to contain COVID-19, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The incentives would be funded by surplus national tax revenue from last year, Wang said. The funding could be appropriated after the legislature passes draft special statutes governing the use of the surplus tax revenue in the upcoming legislative session, he said. Of the NT$450 billion (US$14.97 billion) in surplus tax revenue, the government plans to spend NT$100 billion on seven categories of projects to bolster Taiwan’s
RSS