The legislature yesterday concluded the second and final day of a provisional session initiated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus, passing 21 government-restructuring bills that will revamp the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics, overseas missions and ethical institutions.
To streamline the central government, improve its effectiveness and enhance flexibility within its departments, the government launched a plan to restructure the organization of the Executive Yuan, reducing the current 37 agencies to 29, which will consist of 14 ministries, eight councils, three independent agencies and four additional organizations, over the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2014.
The restructuring plans required legislative approval of acts concerning changes to the organization of the affected agencies, but 80 other acts still failed to clear the legislature.
After negotiations, lawmakers decided not to rush the passage of the 80 draft acts on which they disagreed by voting on them, as this would have prolonged the session by another day.
The seventh legislature closed on Dec. 14 to allow lawmakers to focus on the legislative elections last Saturday. The KMT caucus on Tuesday unexpectedly proposed a provisional session, saying that it was urgent to pass the scores of acts to prevent them having to go through the whole legislative process in the new legislature, but only 21 acts were passed.
Amid public concern, lawmakers decided not to vote on an amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法) advocated by Non--Partisan Solidarity Union Legislator Yen Chin-piao (顏清標) in which local elected representatives, such as city or county councilors and borough or village wardens, would be absolved of charges related to the abuse of discretionary funds.
If passed, the amendment would benefit Yen, who has been indicted on charges of embezzlement and the fraudulent acquisition of public money while he served as Tai-chung County Council speaker from October 1998 to December 2000 in a case involving several Taichung politicians who sought to use public funds to reimburse expenses from night clubs.
In related developments, Premier and vice president-elect Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said yesterday that a new Cabinet would be formed next month.
Vice Premier Sean Chen was widely expected by local media to be named as Wu’s successor, while Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) was rumored to be tapped as the vice premier.
Declining to comment on the reported appointments, Wu said he “was not informed.”
“I cannot comment publicly on that before the president has made a final decision,” he said. “It’s the role of the president to appoint a premier.”
The oath of office for the eight legislature will be taken on Feb. 1. The legislature’s question-and--answer session for the new premier’s policy address could be set for Feb. 17, pending a decision by new lawmakers.
“The new Cabinet will definitely be in place before the session begins,” Wu said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS