The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has recently come under fire for discrepancies between their reported political donations and expenses during the 2024 presidential campaign, creating suspicions of accounting fraud. The KMT hosted a press conference Monday afternoon to clarify that as accountant Tuanmu Cheng (端木正) was contracted to report expense declarations, he will be held responsible.
TPP spokesperson Vicky Chen (陳智菡) says that the party has conducted an inventory of expense vouchers and found that 15 expenditures totalling more than NT$410,000 (US$12,650) were indeed underreported, and two were misreported. Under pressure to publish the results faster, Tuanmu rushed to divide the expenditures into nine accounts, crediting them to various companies. The companies in question had no knowledge of this, nor did the TPP presidential campaign.
Lee Wen-tsung (李文宗), who served as the campaign’s finance chief, had originally guaranteed that he would personally sign every expense voucher during the campaign. However, due to a shortage of manpower in the finance department, professional accountants were appointed to handle these matters, and he failed to conduct a double check. Lee apologized for his shortsightedness, saying he would seek disciplinary action from the party himself.
TPP legislator Huang Shan-shan (黃珊珊) says that no invoices or expense vouchers were forged during the campaign, and that every cent was put toward the election campaign. TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) reiterated this point, adding that the party will hold itself to higher standards, continue to check expenditures and submit corrections, and hold Tuanmu legally accountable for the errors.