However, this could be an impediment to the prevention of corruption. Bribery, for example, pervades all civil services and is not restricted to judges. It would be impossible for such a small unit to cope with such a wide-reaching problem.
The current anti-corruption effort is a clear case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Authority is not concentrated in one unit — instead the units responsible are mired in a conflict of authority. Clearly, in order to concentrate resources, there is a need to establish a unit tasked exclusively to tackle corruption.
The Cabinet’s plan seems to be to amalgamate the DGE into the proposed anti-corruption commission and place this body under the ministry’s jurisdiction. It would be able to investigate any corruption case and would operate in the capacity of judicial police — the first anti-corruption unit of its type in Taiwan. Unfortunately, there are still quite a few problems with this.
First, there is an important difference between the proposed unit and its most likely blueprint, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). The ICAC reports directly to the chief executive of Hong Kong and is therefore completely independent of civil services. By placing the proposed unit under the ministry, it would be subject to directives from prosecutors and would also be vulnerable to pressure from the minister of justice and the premier. This would raise serious questions about its independence.
Second, there is already another body — the BOI — charged with investigating corruption and if it were not stripped of this authority clashes would be unavoidable.
The only sensible and effective way forward is to create a single unit concentrated under one roof with the authority to prevent, investigate and prosecute corruption, and to guarantee its overall independence. It is important that the unit would be high-level and the staff stringently vetted.
However, even more critical is that the unit must be the only authority to carry out corruption investigations and its role must be clearly defined, so that it does not overlap with other bodies, thereby avoiding conflicts.
If these systemic issues are not taken care of, and the unit is established purely to allay public anger over corruption, I’m afraid this initiative will only compound an already complex picture, which will do nothing to help the fight against corruption.
Wu Ching-chin is an assistant professor in the Department of Financial and Economic Law at Alethia University.
TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER
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