【A statement regarding the controversy surrounding false declarations】

【A statement regarding the controversy surrounding false declarations】

CCW calls for the revision of the Political Donations Law, and for candidates to self-report their income and expenditures.

Recently, Taiwan’s TPP has been thrown into turmoil following the false declaration of political donations during the 2024 election period. However, as early as last June, before the election, Citizen Congress Watch held a press conference to discuss election funding and holes in the current “Political Donations Law”, calling for its swift revision.

CCW once again reiterated its position, calling on legislators, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Control Yuan, to amend the Political Donations Law, which has not been amended in sixteen years. Specifically, information regarding the contribution of large political donations should be temporarily made public to be reviewed by the people. Additionally, if the laws or declaration platforms are not yet fully implemented, candidates should also do the declaring themselves, making information regarding large political donations public with prompt updates. This will not only gain the trust of the constituency, but can also make the democratic election mechanism better.

CCW puts forth the following two statements:

The Political Donations Law should be speedily amended, ensuring that all income and expenses are declared.

The last time Taiwan’s Political Donations Law was revised was over sixteen years ago. The legal holes contained within make the people unable to tell with certainty where donations are coming from. The current law is unable to control the income and expenses from political donations in the following: political primaries, signatories in recall cases, and in those who have been recalled. Additionally, it is unable to completely eliminate the risk of foreign powers using political donations to meddle in elections.

According to the stipulations set forth in the current law, those who intend to run for office should declare their political donations within three months after election day. Additionally, agencies responsible for processing these declarations need to collect and organize accounting reports, providing them for review, and making them public online, within six months after the initial processing deadline. When visiting the Control Yuan, CCW discovered that a lot of candidates do not complete their declarations until the last day which not only creates a burden for staff, but moreover covertly delays its public release.The longest people have to wait to view the published declarations is nine months after election day. The current system does not allow for the constituency to attain enough information prior to voting, leading to information asymmetry, and covertly expanding the influence that financial groups have in Taiwanese politics.

Looking at the American system for political donations, you only need to receive a single donation exceeding one thousand USD, then you must declare this donation within twenty days. Furthermore, the government needs to make the declaration public within forty eight hours of receiving it. By comparison, the Taiwanese Political Donations Law states that at the latest, people need to wait nine months after the elections to view the declaration of political donations. The American system allows constituents to be able to know the source of political donations prior to the election, and question those donations which raise red flags, thus increasing the public’s trust in election fairness. At the same time, America also stipulates that any donations exceeding fifty thousand USD must be declared electronically, thus increasing the timeliness of the declaration. It would be worth it for Taiwanese government agencies to consider these points.

CCW believes that political donations and expenditures should be made public for a limited time, and that the political parties or the Ministry of the Interior should propose an amendment, making expenditures exceeding one hundred thousand NTD announced within two weeks and provided to the constituents, thus improving the civil monitoring mechanism.

CCW further proposes that before completing the amendment process, the Control Yuan should add a self declaration function to the Political Donations Public Review Platform, allowing those candidates who are willing, to self-register their political donation information. This method can not only ensure that the public is able to understand the flow of political donations, and vote accordingly, but also can lessen the influence of financial groups over candidates, achieving a more healthy civil ecosystem. As for the Control Yuan, this method can also shrink the manpower needed to process declarations, and provide a stronger legal basis for handling the disclosure of information.

Every year, legislators must review a two trillion dollar budget for the central government and a five trillion dollar budget for state run institutions. Additionally, they have an inspection budget of up to twenty million NTD! Even at the local government level, the officials, councilors, and mayors elected in the nine-in-one elections are closely tied to our daily lives. CCW firmly believes that if you disclose political donations before the election, then you won’t regret not doing it after. Prior to an election, if we can understand the income and expendetures from large sum political donations, this not only can prevent scandals or fraudulent accounts, but also can allow the people access to enough information to vote for the most suitable candidate!