The Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee on Tuesday unanimously agreed not to approve any spending requests from the National Women’s League (NWL) until the Supreme Administrative Court rules on whether to refreeze its assets.
The committee is to appeal the Taipei High Administrative Court’s decision to unfreeze the league’s assets and would not approve any spending by the league until the Supreme Administrative Court makes a ruling, it said.
The Taipei court on Wednesday last week decided to unfreeze the league’s assets on the grounds that the freeze would prevent the league from carrying out scheduled affairs in the interest of public welfare, and from effectively using its assets, causing it “irreparable damage.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The assets totaling NT$38.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) were in February frozen by the committee after the league was declared an affiliate of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
If the league disposes of its assets before a final ruling is handed down, the Taipei court should be held responsible, the committee said, adding that banks should also pay attention to the league’s accounts to prevent it from transferring assets to other parties.
League members attempted to withdraw money after the court unfroze its assets, but were rejected by banks that said they not have yet been informed by the committee on the matter, people familiar with the matter said, adding that the league has NT$37.9 billion in cash saved in banks.
“Although the court has already ruled that the assets should be unfrozen, banks still refused to let us withdraw money unless we could provide documentation from the committee, even when we were just trying to get cash to replace old computers,” league chairwoman Joanna Lei (雷倩) said on Facebook yesterday.
All government agencies should obey the law and the commission should inform banks to unlock the assets as soon as possible, she added.
Additional reporting by Ann Maxon
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