A budget fight in Taiwan has left sheltered workshops that employ disabled workers without their biggest Mid-Autumn order, and both sides are blaming each other.

• The KMT and TPP cut and froze NT$30 million of the Presidential Office's discretionary fund, and 15,000 mooncake gift boxes ordered from 37 disability groups and sheltered workshops were cancelled.
• Taichung mayor Lu Shiu-yen stepped in to buy 1,500 of the cancelled boxes.
• KMT lawmaker Liao Wei-hsiang turned the blame back on the Lai government, accusing it of using disabled people as a political weapon.
• The bigger problem: 4 in 10 government "priority purchases" from these workshops are counted on paper but never actually placed, leaving NT$700 million to NT$1 billion of promised orders unfilled.
• The health ministry admits the paper-only purchases are a problem but has no fix yet, and one workshop turned down an invitation to appear at a Presidential Office press event.

Outlook: The workshops will likely get patched up by local governments for now, while the deeper procurement reform stays stuck in the budget fight.