Taipei Times
Date: Mar 26, 2016
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Legislation proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to investigate claims of irregularities in former presidents’ assets and to establish a legislative committee to oversee cross-strait affairs was referred to the legislative committees for review yesterday without opposition from other caucuses.

The KMT caucus proposed two bills in the Procedure Committee on Tuesday to be placed on yesterday’s legislative floor agenda: a draft on the management and the investigation of presidents’ ill-gotten assets and for the establishment of an ad hoc committee to oversee cross-strait affairs.

According to the former bill, presidents in office since the Act on Property-Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法) took effect on July 2, 1993 — which would include former presidents Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) — and the involved parties would be required to report the properties they had possessed six months before they took office and those six months after they left office.

Assets that are not reported in time would be considered ill-gotten, it states. The bill defines “ill-gotten assets” as those gained by the presidents themselves or by others with the help of the presidents outside of legal channels.

KMT caucus whip Lin Te-fu (林德福) on Monday said the bill is reasonable, adding that as “transitional justice” is being championed, there should not be opposition to the attempt to regulate the presidents’ assets.     [FULL  STORY]