Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) yesterday said that assets held by the Taiwan Postal Association would be swiftly returned to the government, after lawmakers at the legislature’s Transportation Committee demanded action on the issue.
The association manages assets previously owned by postal workers during the Japanese colonial era.
The association has 13 board members, six of whom are Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) officials, four hold Chunghwa Post management posts and three are from the Chunghwa Postal Workers’ Union.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The Legislative Yuan in 2015 passed a resolution that said the association must return the assets to the government.
The association’s board of directors last year said it would return 95 items, but three board members from the union filed a lawsuit against the ministry claiming that the board’s decision was invalid.
A district court ruled in favor of the ministry, but the Taiwan High Court sided with the union members.
The ministry can appeal the second ruling.
The union said the assets were for years managed using postal workers’ money and the government cannot arbitrarily take them.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) and Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said it was unacceptable that the ministry had not retrieved the assets nearly two years since the legislative committee passed the resolution.
The assets were found to belong to the government and the association has shown disregard for the legislature’s decision, Yeh said.
The association had promised to donate 95 items to the government and 50 to Chunghwa Post, with a combined value of about NT$2 billion (US$64.64 million), Lin said.
However, the association owns properties worth more than NT$11 billion, Lin said.
The ministry has followed the Legislative Yuan’s resolution to handle the assets, Department of Post and Telecommunications Director-General Wang Ting-chun (王廷俊) said.
However, “as the ministry would encounter legal issues if it were to dissolve the association, the association is to remain, but its assets should be donated to Chunghwa Post,” he said.
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