Charitable fundraising may be more closely monitored after the National Alliance for Post-earthquake Reconstruction (全盟) yesterday proposed a draft Donation Management Law to the legislature.
The proposal, according to the alliance, will not only prevent deceit among supposed charities but also foster the development of non-profit organizations.
"We hope to have the draft passed by the end of this legislative session, which is Jan. 15," said Chen Wen-liang (
The existing framework is covered by the Unified Donation Campaign Regulation (
The alliance said the regulation was briefly stated and lacked legal binding force.
Legislators of different parties had sent their versions of donation laws to the floor, including the KMT's Chiang Chih-wen (江綺雯), independent Chu Hui-liang (朱惠良), and the DPP's Yen-Chin-fu (顏錦福).
The alliance is seeking integration of these versions during a period of legislative negotiation.
The National Alliance for Post-earthquake Reconstruction -- established ten days after the earthquake -- comprises 60 social welfare groups.
Primary goals for the alliance are monitoring the operation of civilian resources mobilized through disaster relief activities and checking government reconstruction works.
According to data from the Ministry of Interior, NT$20 billion in donations has been raised for the 921 earthquake relief and reconstruction fund, of which half went to the Cabinet-sponsored Disaster Reconstruction Foundation (
But not every group has made clear how much money it has received and how it is spending the money, said the alliance.
According to the alliance's donation-monitoring committee, there are over 200 civilian fund-raising groups helping earthquake victims.
The alliance contacted a total of 165 of these groups. Fifty-nine out of the 165 were under credit inspection by the alliance; 20 had hired accountants auditing their own accounts; 58 had transferred their funds to other donation accounts. Another nine groups were involved with social welfare programs.
But there were 19 groups remaining that could not be contacted by the alliance.
Most groups did not specify targets for their fund-raising campaigns.
Additionally, records of donations were not available to the public for inspection, said Chen Wen-liang, who is also executive secretary of the United Way of Taiwan -- which collects for various social welfare groups and distributes the funds as necessary.
"A lot of Taiwanese have traditional Buddhist thoughts on benefaction, so they do not care where the money goes," he said.
The draft law proposes that any public donation campaign for social welfare should state the recipient welfare group, ensuring donors' rights.
It would also enable the public to compare the interests and effectiveness of charitable organizations and provide an informed choice to potential benefactors, Chen said.
Every non-profit group's annual projects, budgets and financial reports should be open to the public, according to the bill.
"This is a policy applied in Japan, the US and many European countries," he said.
The alliance's bill also proposes that donations to civilian groups for emergency or disaster relief should benefit the donor through the provision of tax reduction incentives.
Chen took the 921 earthquake as an example: "The government had been calling on donating groups to transfer their funds to the central government's account in an attempt to prevent misuse," he said.
But many enterprises and groups donated to the government partially to gain tax relief," he said.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS