Tue, Jan 21, 2025 page3

• KMT to propose an ‘honesty’ act

  • By Lin Hsin-han and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday said his caucus would propose legislation in the next session that aims to penalize officials who lie.

  Lo made the remark after Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) denounced opposition parties for cutting and freezing the central government’s total budget.

  KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers cut NT$93.98 billion (US$2.9 billion) from the central government’s general budget on Friday.

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang, front left, and Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu, front right, hold up placards stating their respective stances during a budget vote at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  The legislature continued its budget review yesterday and today, and was projected to cut another NT$100 billion at least.

  As agencies under the Cabinet have been claiming that the budget cut would affect social welfare, the KMT caucus would propose bills to introduce an “honest government act and lying offenses for officials,” Lo said.

  “The DPP should explore the example of [Tesla CEO] Elon Musk. When [US president-elect] Donald Trump proposed the Department of Government Efficiency to restructure the government, he [Musk] proposed a US$2 trillion cut in budget. Has the US been destroyed?” he said.

  

  Taiwan People’s Party caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang, second right, speaks at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times

  In the past, former president “Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the budget cut should be 20 percent. A budget cut of 10 percent cannot make the government change; a cut of 20 percent can transform its structure,” he added.

  The corruption case of Ultra Source’s (超思) egg imports squandered NT$500 million from the national treasury, while corruption in the Tainan solar energy project and Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) deficit cost the government at least NT$10 billion and NT$100 billion respectively, Lo said.

  “The opposition parties strive to safeguard people’s wallets. How can we paralyze the government with just a 3 percent budget cut?” he said, adding that the government was spreading rumors and that officials were lying, because they would not be penalized.

  “Although Constitutional justices protect the right of governmental officials to lie at the legislature, they do not ensure their right to lie about political affairs. We are exploring the possibility of proposing the legislation of the honest government act and lying offenses for officials in the next legislative session. Let the public decide whether the officials are spreading rumors and lying,” Lo said.

  Separately yesterday, KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) said it is lawmakers’ duty to review the budget and cut inefficient or inappropriately listed budget items.

  The DPP government has long exploited budget items such as “operating expenses” and “media propaganda expenses” to fund “cyberwarriors,” wasting public funds without producing benefits, Lin said.

  The KMT caucus strengthened its legislative supervision by freezing the budget, which is not equivalent to removing the budget, he said.

  Agencies only have to report to the legislature on progress when a certain part of the budget has been spent, to ensure that taxpayers’ money were used to improve people’s livelihoods, instead of being used for political manipulation, Lin said.

  The opposition’s budget cut proposals are not final, so ministries and departments should be more proactive in communicating and explaining their budget plans, he added.

  TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday said the central government’s total budget for this year reached a new high of NT$3.2 trillion.

  The TPP caucus reviewed the budget and proposed a total cut of slightly more than NT$100 billion and denied the NT$100 billion budget to subsidize Taipower’s deficit, he said.

  With these cuts, the Cabinet still has a budget of NT$2.9 billion, but Cho chose to incite the public by circulating biased information through administrative departments and state-level cyberwarriors instead of facing and solving the problem, Huang said.

  If Cho is so incompetent that he does not know how to do his job with NT$2.9 billion in his hands, he should resign as premier instead of polarizing society and causing conflicts, he said.

  Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
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