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DPP questions Ma
political funding
UNDER-REPORTING? The DPP contends that there is
a huge gap between the political donations Ma received and the final amount
reported to the Control Yuan
By Lee Hsin-fang and Jason Pan / Staff reporter, with staff
writer
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called into question political
contributions to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election campaign after the
Control Yuan publicized net political donations received by last year’s
presidential candidates.
The government watchdog’s report showed that Ma and his running mate on the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket, Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), had a
balance of NT$2.22 million (US$73,960), while the DPP ticket of Tsai Ing-wen
(蔡英文) and Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) had a balance of NT$45.89 million.
The DPP questioned the KMT’s figures, saying it was inconceivable that Ma would
have a final balance that was far lower than Tsai’s.
DPP spokesman Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said the numbers were unrealistic.
“Ma’s reported figure is totally at odds with the KMT’s wealth and its
extravagant spending on large-scale publicity and media campaigns during the
presidential election,” Lin said.
“The KMT has enormous party assets and properties under its control. During the
presidential election, many business corporations supported Ma’s campaign. Ma
was therefore able to solicit considerable political donations from these
corporations,” he added.
“It is obvious that there is a huge disparity between the political donations Ma
received during the presidential election and the figures they reported to the
Control Yuan,” he added.
According to the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法), any leftover from political
donations to presidential candidates must be listed in an accounting report to
the Control Yuan, and if the donations were not spent within four years, they
must be turned over to the national treasury.
The Control Yuan yesterday also publicized political parties’ financial
statements for last year, which showed that the KMT received NT$113 million in
political donations and spent NT$156 million, resulting in a shortfall of
NT$43.22 million.
The DPP report said it received NT$132 million in political donations and spent
NT$156 million, resulting in a deficit of NT$23.63 million.
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