Many cases of councilors in Kaohsiung, and other counties and cities, being investigated, prosecuted or sentenced for alleged fraudulent receipt of assistant fees have been reported. These councilors are from different parties and regions, showing that the problem is structural in nature. First, there is no substantive review mechanism for the payment of subsidies to councilors to enable them to employ assistants. The system has councilors initially submitting a list of assistants, including how much they are to be paid together with their account number, after which the payment is to be remitted directly to the assistants’ accounts. In practice,