Pan-blue-camp lawmakers and academics accused the government yesterday of doctoring financial reports and embezzling public assets, claiming the country is "almost broke" as a result of rampant corruption and mismanagement.
People First Party Legislator Liu Yi-ju (劉憶如) told a meeting for the legislature and government officials that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government used six tricks to make false financial statements over the past six years.
He said it had exaggerated tax revenues, fabricated income from selling government-owned shares in state enterprises, wasted public money, doctored accounting items, made complicated reinvestments to evade legislative auditing and hid key information and then endorsed this behavior.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
She quoted international rating agencies as claiming that Taiwan's financial rankings dropped to 79th in the world -- and that government debt was running at NT$11 trillion (US$337.5 billion) or 110 percent of GDP, as opposed to the government's claims of 39 percent.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was not telling the truth when he said Taiwan could afford to borrow "twice as much" as it has, the lawmaker said.
The meeting was held to review an opposition-initiated motion to recall the president. DPP lawmakers and most government officials boycotted the meeting.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) said NT$4.61 trillion in public assets had been improperly removed through merging state-owned banks with private holding companies, BOT projects, privatization of state-owned businesses and "sheer waste" by government departments.
People First Party Legislator Liu Wen-hsiung (
The signs were a reference to the president's decision to bypass the legislature in rebutting opposition charges.
Yesterday's legislative committee meeting was second in a series of four before the legislature votes on the recall motion next Tuesday.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS