Over the past few decades, there have been frequent reports of city and county councilors being sentenced for embezzling funds through shell accounts for bogus assistants.
As the monthly salary for a councilor assistant is only NT$30,000 to NT$40,000 (US$1,056 to US$1,407), why is the money so alluring to some councilors, even at the cost of their political careers?
During her term, a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tainan city councilor surnamed Yang (楊) embezzled funds by making false reports on expenses, illegally profiting by as much as NT$6.68 million through shell accounts under bogus names.
Neither are cases of councilors embezzling funds over several terms unheard of. From 2010 to 2017, a former DPP Taoyuan city councilor surnamed Chiu (邱) applied for monthly salaries for his “assistants,” who were actually working for his family’s land administration agency during the period.
Not only did he not have to pay them, but he did not have to provide labor and health insurance for them. By doing so, he embezzled as much as NT$8.22 million from the Taoyuan City Government.
More absurdly, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taoyuan city councilor surnamed Shu (舒), who is serving a sixth term, was late last year charged for embezzling funds via shell accounts of bogus assistants in the names of her mother, who had had a stroke, her older brother, who has a mental disorder, and several friends. Prosecutors accused the councilor of embezzling NT$9.8 million.
The monthly salary of a bogus assistant is insignificant, but when a councilor makes relatives and friends bogus assistants, the long-term total of their salaries might be enough to invest in real estate, which is probably why some councilors are willing to take the risk.
Under the assistant fee system, councilors can provide subsidies to assistants, with minimal requirements for personnel data. Therefore, it is not easy for them to get caught if they embezzle funds by such means.
The Ministry of the Interior last year conducted a review of the subsidy system for assistant employment, hoping to curb embezzlement by councilors, but the legislative amendments that the ministry proposed mostly focused on subsidy limits and verification methods.
However, the key lies in how to prevent councilors from turning their jurisdictions into hotbeds of corruption.
The application for assistant fees is not monitored, so it is difficult to catch councilors who are embezzling funds in the names of their relatives and friends.
Given how little an assistant subsidy provides and the lack of monitoring, it is no wonder that some councilors are not even aware that they are breaking the law.
By the time investigations are launched, a councilor might have already embezzled more than NT$1 million, or even NT$10 million.
They not only stole taxpayers’ money, but also crowded out monthly wages of real assistants and hurt the quality of their services.
Therefore, amendments proposed by the ministry should be based on the premise of openness and transparency, and they should require councilors to disclose information about their assistants — including their names, titles and salaries.
After all, the primary goal of most elected representatives is to win re-election, and their supporters and rivals would watch closely to see whether the information they provide is accurate.
Wu Hsiang-chun is chairwoman of the Taiwan City Council Assistant Industrial Labor Union.
Translated by Eddy Chang
It is employment pass renewal season in Singapore, and the new regime is dominating the conversation at after-work cocktails on Fridays. From September, overseas employees on a work visa would need to fulfill the city-state’s new points-based system, and earn a minimum salary threshold to stay in their jobs. While this mirrors what happens in other countries, it risks turning foreign companies away, and could tarnish the nation’s image as a global business hub. The program was announced in 2022 in a bid to promote fair hiring practices. Points are awarded for how a candidate’s salary compares with local peers, along
China last month enacted legislation to punish —including with the death penalty — “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.” The country’s leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), need to be reminded about what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has said and done in the past. They should think about whether those historical figures were also die-hard advocates of Taiwanese independence. The Taiwanese Communist Party was established in the Shanghai French Concession in April 1928, with a political charter that included the slogans “Long live the independence of the Taiwanese people” and “Establish a republic of Taiwan.” The CCP sent a representative, Peng
Japan and the Philippines on Monday signed a defense agreement that would facilitate joint drills between them. The pact was made “as both face an increasingly assertive China,” and is in line with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s “effort to forge security alliances to bolster the Philippine military’s limited ability to defend its territorial interests in the South China Sea,” The Associated Press (AP) said. The pact also comes on the heels of comments by former US deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, who said at a forum on Tuesday last week that China’s recent aggression toward the Philippines in
The Ministry of National Defense on Tuesday announced that the military would hold its annual Han Kuang exercises from July 22 to 26. Military officers said the exercises would feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure. This year’s exercises underline the recent reforms in Taiwan’s military as it transitions from a top-down command structure to one where autonomy is pushed down to the front lines to improve decisionmaking and adaptability. Militaries around the world have been observing and studying Russia’s war in Ukraine. They have seen that the Ukrainian military has been much quicker to adapt to