The Ministry of National Defense could not have expedited a NT$2.4 billion (US$79.7 million at the current exchange rate) payment to Ching Fu Shipbuilding Co had it not received instructions from top management at the Presidential Office, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said yesterday, urging the Presidential Office to name the official who ordered the ministry to do so.
The ministry on Thursday said in a statement that the payment was made ahead of schedule due to “human error” and yesterday put on hold its plan to publish a list of personnel to be punished over the payment, saying that further investigation was needed.
It is regrettable that the ministry insists that the disbursement of the NT$2.4 billion followed due budgeting procedure and was entirely legal, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said, citing the ministry’s Thursday statement and accusing it of shirking its responsibility.
Photo: CNA
The funds were disbursed on Dec. 16 last year — just 10 days after Ching Fu again asked the ministry for the payment, which was quick and suggests that the office’s top management was involved in the disbursement of the funds, she said.
Considering the sheer size of the payment and that it was composed of budgets earmarked for other military services, it was unlikely that the ministry could have paid the shipbuilder without receiving instructions from upper management, Lee said.
The ministry should not help the office tell lies by making its financial and accounting personnel the office’s scapegoats, she said, alleging the payment breached the Budget Act (預算法) in several ways.
The ministry only earmarked NT$44 million for the project to locally build navy minesweepers for the previous fiscal year, which had been depleted before the payment was made, she said.
The ministry paid Ching Fu for its phase three work of separating the hull casting from the mold, which was not only illegal, but unnecessary, as their contract states that payment was due in March this year, Lee said.
According to Article 63 of the act, the ministry could only appropriate 20 percent, or NT$8.8 million, of the NT$44 million budget from other sources it has jurisdiction over if the need arose, she said.
She blasted Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) for saying in his briefing to the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee in March that the ministry “was preparing the phase-three payment.”
The ministry last month admitted that the payment had been made in December, she said.
Feng seems to think “lawmakers are kindergarteners or retards,” she said.
KMT Legislator Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) asked the ministry whether it held any meetings with Presidential Office officials before expediting the payment and, if so, whether it took minutes, as she could not find related documents via the legislature’s Document Request Committee.
Premier William Lai (賴清德), who said he would “get to the bottom” of the scandal, should not let his words become “hot air,” while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should clarify her office’s role in the case, she said.
The ministry later yesterday reiterated that it did not misappropriate budgets nor receive any pressure from the Presidential Office or any other top official.
Additional reporting by CNA
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