Media personality Frances Huang (黃光芹) is not to be fined for encouraging the donation of portable air-conditioners to rapid testing stations, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.
Huang wrote in a Facebook post on Monday that the Ministry of Health and Welfare had asked New Taipei City, where Huang resides, to investigate her donation drive, after an anonymous report suspected her of contravening the Charity Donations Act (公益勸募條例).
The government was unwise to launch such an investigation, Huang said, questioning the rationale behind the probe.
Photo courtesy of the Central Epidemic Command Center
Huang said that she and some friends had only raised funds in private, without publicly providing a bank account.
From May 20 until Monday, she said that she and her friends donated 171 air-conditioners to medical personnel working at outdoor rapid testing stations.
As she had previously written about the donation drive, some people who saw the posts also contacted the Tainan-based manufacturer Hawrin Air Condition, which donated nearly 300 air-conditioners, including the 171 from her and her friends, Huang said.
As the company donated the air-conditioners without charging them, she and her friends donated about NT$482,900 so that agencies in Taipei, New Taipei City, Tainan and Changhua County could purchase medical supplies, she said.
Huang said that she was glad to see so many people donate medical supplies, especially former minister of transportation and communications Lin Chia-lung’s (林佳龍) fundraiser to purchase 80 negative pressure isolation units from Japan and entertainer Jia Yong-jie’s (賈永婕) fundraiser to buy 342 high-flow nasal cannula machines for hospitals.
While her and her friends’ donations could not match Lin’s and Jia’s, she believes that they share the same good intention, she said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥), who is deputy head of the center, said yesterday that the government had told Huang that she would not be fined, as she had not contravened any law.
“However, people who want to collect funds publicly should be aware of the regulations,” he said.
On Monday, the ministry said that a letter arrived at the health minister’s public opinion mailbox on May 25 about Huang’s campaign.
The ministry said that on May 28, it asked the New Taipei City Government to investigate the matter, and the city government on Thursday last week replied that Huang had not contravened the act because she had not collected money from the public.
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