A refusal by the National Women’s League to comply with the Ministry of the Interior’s request to make known its assets and properties is harming the nation’s interests and the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee should make it the next target of its inquiry, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus secretary-general Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) said.
Liu said the league allegedly has NT$70 billion (US$2.23 billion) of assets and an additional NT$1.6 billion under its Social Welfare Foundation, which was established in 1997.
Liu said that the league’s assets were not generated by itself nor donated by the public, but rather were donated by the government, adding that this would make the league, in accordance with the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), an affiliate organization of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The committee should expedite the process in which the organization is recognized as a KMT affiliate and launch an investigation, Liu said.
The league has been accused of having taken NT$96.93 billion in donations to military veterans between 1955 and 1989, but has not disclosed those donations and the ministry has, according to sources, asked the league to provide that information no less than seven times between February and May.
The league, which the ministry says is the direct successor of the Chunghwa Women’s Anti-Communist League, claims that it has not received any such donations since 1996 and that its previous records are “untraceable” due to the retirement of former employees.
The ministry filed a warning against the league and issued an ultimatum for it to deliver the information before Aug. 15, but the league appealed to the Executive Yuan.
That appeal is still being investigated.
Should the appeal fail to be ratified by the Executive Yuan and the league does not file an administrative lawsuit, it would by law have to make its assets known, while it could have its license revoked or be disbanded should it continue to refuse, the Executive Yuan said.
As of press time yesterday, the league had yet to respond to the ministry’s warning or Liu’s comments.
Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee spokeswoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳) said the committee plans to make the league one possible candidate for investigation, and that the committee is still gathering data and evidence.
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