Taipei Times
Date: Apr 07, 2016
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a resolution asking the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to return to the government properties owned by the Telecommunications Association and Postal Association — two subsidiaries under the ministry — or to dismiss these two organizations, adding that the matter should be resolved within three months.

Lawmakers threatened to send the case to the Control Yuan for investigation if ministry officials fail to comply with the resolution.

The committee was scheduled to review the performances of all the subsidiaries under the ministry and National Communications Commission, but lawmakers in the question-and-answer session focused on whether the two agencies should be dismissed.

The lawmakers said that the two associations — which are under Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) and Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政) — are only in charge of managing the properties they own and function more like real estate companies, adding that the properties managed by these associations belong to the state and could end up being in the hands of private owners.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that the committee had already passed a similar resolution in the previous legislative session, but the ministry chose not to do anything about it. Though five of nine seats on the board of directors of the Telecommunications Association are representatives of government agencies, Cheng said that the current chairman of the association also serves as the executive vice president of Chunghwa Telecom.     [FULL  STORY]