Legislators across party lines yesterday showed a rare display of unity in accusing the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) of violating its budgetary code by illegally using emergency government funds to help Chinese provinces with post-disaster reconstruction projects.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the council intended to allocate a total of NT$65.57 million (US$2 million) from the central government’s emergency fund — also known as the -“second -reserve fund” — in this year’s budget request to help residents of two Chinese provinces rebuild their homes.
Lo said the council planned to use NT$32 million in Yushu, -Qinghai Province, which was struck by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in April last year, while the remaining NT$33 million would go to victims affected by mudslides in Zhouqu, Gansu Province. The mudslide, which struck in August, claimed more than 1,700 lives and affected a third of the area’s residents.
Lo said the Budget Act (預算法) strictly regulates the use of the emergency funds, which she said was widely abused under former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
“The Mainland Affairs Council acts first and reports later,” she said. “I suspect that what it did was illegal, which puts recipients in a very awkward position.”
Article 70 of the act stipulates that government agencies can request use of the emergency money under certain circumstances, provided such a request is approved by the Executive Yuan. If approved, the budget must afterwards be examined by the legislature.
According to law, -government agencies can request the fund when the original budget approved is insufficient because of “actual necessity.”
They can also make such a request when additional expenditures are needed because of extra workload. Finally, they can do so for provisional needs.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said government agencies wishing to use emergency money must be scrupulous.
“Unless it is really necessary, I don’t think they should make such a request,” he said. “If the Mainland Affairs Council wanted to help people in those two Chinese provinces, they could have raised money through public donations rather than use the government’s emergency fund.”
Tsai said he would request that the Control Yuan step in and determine whether the council acted inappropriately or broke any laws.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said the council not only violated the law, but it should also explain to the public why it used money from the Republic of China government for citizens of the People’s Republic of China.
Huang said the DPP legislative caucus would closely examine the council’s budget request when the time comes.
In a statement last night, the council said it did everything in accordance with the law and that this was not the first time the -emergency fund had been used to assist Chinese provinces struck by national disasters.
When the DPP was in power, it said, then-premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) announced on May 13, 2008, that the administration would earmark NT$700 million from the emergency fund following the earthquake in Sichuan Province. The money was approved by the legislature in December 2009 and later by the National Audit Office, it said.
The statement said the Budget Act stipulates that the legislature must be notified should the amount exceed NT$50 million. The council did not violate the budgetary code, but merely followed the proper procedure, it said.
Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today. The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation. Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism. For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
RSS