The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday rejected the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) request to access NT$16.9 million (US$594,610) in frozen assets to pay the 2014 recipients of its Sun Yat-sen Scholarship.
The scholarship scheme was created by the KMT in 1960 to provide financial aid to KMT members who passed an internal assessment to study abroad in pursuit of a master’s degree.
Past recipients include former president and former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), and KMT Chairman and Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣).
After the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee in September 2016 ordered a freeze on KMT assets, the party filed a request seeking access to NT$100 million owed to the party by the Chang Yung-fa Foundation, as well as Central Investment (中央投資) equities, to pay the 2014 scholarship’s nine recipients a total of NT$16.9 million.
The committee denied the request.
In a previous court appearance, an attorney for the KMT said that the request should be approved because the scholarship concerned public welfare, but a committee-appointed attorney said that because the recipients would be fulfilling the obligations of the party, it had nothing to do with public welfare.
The KMT’s attorney on Jan. 7 said that the contracts for studying abroad had been signed prior to the implementation of the Act Governing the Settlement 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).
The committee’s decision to deny the KMT the funds has had a significant effect on the careers of the scholarship’s recipients, the KMT said.
The committee’s attorney said that according to Article 11 of the scholarship contract, recipients must fulfill the obligations of the party, as well as support activities held by the party.
The contract states that if a recipient leaves the party or is expelled from the party after the completion of their study abroad, they must repay the scholarship, showing that it has nothing to do with public welfare, the committee’s attorney said.
The KMT sued for access to the funds, but the court rejected the request. The KMT can still appeal the decision.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS