The Ill-Gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee was set up by the DPP government to deal with the opposition KMT’s properties so as to respond to public expectations on the enforcement of “transitional justice.”
At its first meeting held on Monday, the Cabinet-level committee passed rules on whistleblowing. Under the rules, whistleblowers will be rewarded up to NT$100 million (US$3.3 million) for providing information that enables the committee to retrieve any transferred, hidden or undeclared ill-gotten assets. The committee also stipulated that assets deemed ill-gotten are barred from being used to pay for staff pensions and paychecks. All personnel costs must come from sources like party membership fees, political donations and government subsidies for campaigns.
Calling the committee overbearing, KMT Chairperson Hung Hsiu-chu voiced strong criticism of the rules, which she says have driven her party to extremes. Hung said the KMT has already stopped paying staff year-end bonuses and no longer gives them other perks.
Committee Chairman Wellington Ku said he took the post of committee head “with trepidation” as it is a job that pleases no one. When asked whether he was targeting the KMT, the lawyer-turned-politician said the committee is tasked with revealing the truth to the public about how a large amount of money was funneled into KMT coffers when Taiwan was under its authoritarian rule. Ku also said the most difficult part is that no one, not even historians, knows how much the KMT obtained and sold over the past several decades.
Under the law governing the handling of ill-gotten properties by political parties and their affiliate organizations, assets obtained by political parties and their affiliate organizations after 1945 are illegal and must be returned to the state.