Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said the party’s presidential election campaign had serious accounting flaws and unimaginable errors in data reported to the Control Yuan.
The TPP and its chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who was also the party’s presidential candidate, have faced questions about flaws in their political donations income and expenditure report, and whether they deliberately reported false records.
Ko on Sunday said he has asked Huang, who was his campaign manager, to head the party’s task force to deal with the political donation disclosure issues and to hold daily news conferences for the public.
Photo: CNA
At the first news conference yesterday, Huang said the office “certainly had serious flaws in the process, but so far we have found the receipts of all the records we failed to report and that were incorrectly logged by the accountant, and they were all used for the election.”
“We express our deepest apology to all TPP supporters,” she said. “We understand your sadness and your anger.”
“The accounting process had serious flaws, and the reporting process had unimaginable errors, conducted rashly and disorderly, so we will carefully look into each financial record and cooperate with an investigation by prosecutors,” she said.
They have found two incorrectly logged records, including two expenditure records of NT$960 (US$29.97) and NT$110 which were incorrectly logged by the accountant as NT$960,110, she said, adding that another is a NT$56,000 payment to buy honey, which was incorrectly logged as NT$5,600.
Huang said they also found about 70 to 80 receipts, certificates or remittance records of expenditures that were not declared, which include NT$29,600 used for making mugs, NT$32,761 for making socks, NT$18,810 for a software fee, as well as meal, taxi, parking and transportation fees.
Asked why the office reported a NT$9 million expense for tissues, she said they were used in campaign giveaways, including tissues that cost NT$1.36 per bag and scouring pads that cost NT$3.9 per piece.
Regarding the car rental fee for Ko’s US visit reaching NT$890,000, Huang said there should have been two car rental records — one for Ko’s visit and another for vice presidential candidate Cynthia Wu’s (吳欣盈) US visit — but the accountant logged both as “eastern US trip.”
Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation yesterday published its latest poll which showed that the TPP no longer has a high support rate from highly-educated people and white-collar workers.
Asked which political party they favored the most, 34.2 percent said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), 23.2 percent said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and 13.8 percent said the TPP.
Asked why the TPP’s support rate only dropped 2.2 percent after the donation disclosure scandals, foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said it might be because the poll was conducted between Monday and Wednesday last week, when the scandals were just revealed.
However, he said that while the TPP previously had the highest support from highly-educated people and white-collar workers, they fell to second place behind the DPP in support from highly-educated people, and to third place behind the DPP and KMT for white-collar workers.
Asked about people’s “affection temperature” — with 0 for “strongly dislike” and 100 for “strongly like” — toward the parties, You said the TPP received an average of 40.33, suggesting the public feels “cold” about the party.
Compared with the poll from November last year, people who “like” the TPP fell by 14.7 percent, while people who “dislike” the party increased by 11.3 percent, he said, adding that it suggests the party has lost the favor of nearly 3 million people and gained dislike from about 2.2 million people.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
RSS