The Council of Cultural Affairs staged the NT$215 million (US$7.15 million) musical Dreamers (夢想家) for two nights last month to celebrate the Republic of China’s centennial. Regardless of whether any attempts to rig the tender were involved, it seems unusual that such a large sum of money would be spent on a musical at a time when the country is facing a fiscal crisis and the government has problems making ends meet.
However, the government has spent budgets in similar ways in the past. For example, fireworks displays put on by the Taipei City Government have exceeded NT$100 million, the Taipei International Flora Expo cost about NT$10 billion and many city and county governments spend tens of millions to stage evening galas. These are all things that should be looked at more closely.
Money should be spent where it counts. A housewife struggling with finances will naturally make the best use of her family’s limited resources. Government budgets do not belong to administrative personnel, but when they lack a sense of public service, it is very easy for government budgets to be wasted.
There are legal procedures for drawing up government budgets, while the Cabinet must send the budget to the legislature for review. The term “budgetary politics” refers to a situation in which the legislative budget review becomes a matter of political competition. If the same party is in control of both the government and the legislature, it is much easier for government budgets to be passed, because it is easier for the government and the legislature to do as they wish and for elected representatives to share in the spoils. Elected representatives at different levels all control a certain amount of funds for local construction to be spent in consultation between them and the government.
In addition, when governments draw up a budget, the different departments will do what they can to show their abilities. If the fiscal and budget authorities do not perform the role of the “bad guy” as they are supposed to, unprincipled senior leaders will play the role of peacemaker and ignore demands for justice and fairness. Much of the waste of public funds starts inside the government’s administrative bodies.
So-called zero-based budgeting and performance budgeting often deteriorate into flashy ways of guessing. A leader who is good at attracting funds also displays capability and an ability to get things done.
With an administrative culture like this, it is only natural that the budget for the government increases year by year. It makes one wonder how responsible bodies like the National Science Council, the Science and Technology Advisory Group and the Council for Economic Planning and Development, who are in charge of massive budgets for science, technology and infrastructure, have actually been reviewing and assessing their budgets.
It is clear how capable the minister of the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) and the finance minister are at stopping the leaders of different agencies from asking for funding they don’t really need. What distinguishes a politician from a political hack is whether, in addition to spending funds in legally defined budgets and major policy budgets where it counts, he or she also has the determination to save money wherever possible.
To use embedded government advertising as an example, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are not that different, but apart from the sums of money involved, it is the attitude that counts. Governments have absolutely no reason to waste taxpayers’ hard-earned money on the promotion of themselves or their party. Voters have their own ways of evaluating and making their minds up about whether the -government is doing a good job.
By the same token, the government spends its money in different ways. Some is capital expenditure that will generate future returns, while some is current expenditure that will not generate any future returns. Anyone who understands these issues knows how much can be saved in these different situations. Most advantageous tenders, price negotiations for tenders below NT$1 million and tenders with a base price offer different opportunities and different possibilities of saving public funds.
The legislature, the DGBAS and other departments are already monitoring government budget allocations, decision making, use and expenditure reporting. The higher up an official is in the hierarchy, the more responsibility they should take for the fact that public funds are still being wasted.
At a time of budget deficits, when the government has problems finding new sources of revenue and cutting spending, specialist groups, academics and experts should start at the source and monitor whether the government is spending its budgets where it counts.
Lin Chia-cheng is a professor at Soochow University and former member of the government’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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