Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (
In addition to the premier, six high-ranking officials from executive organizations will also be requested to meet with members of the Control Yuan to detail how and why the contentious decision was reached.
The series of interviews began with Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台電) Chairman Hsi Shi-chi (席時濟), Taipower President Kuo Chun-hui (郭俊惠), and Atomic Energy Council Chairman Hsia Der-yu (夏德鈺). Yesterday the Control Yuan's five-member panel listened to reports given by Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) and Chen Chao-yih (陳昭義), secretary-general of the Energy Commission. Tomorrow, the panel will meet with Auditor-General of the Ministry of Audit, Su Chen-ping (蘇振平).
"Given that these units -- Taipower, the Atomic Energy Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs -- could only offer advice regarding the pros and cons of the matter, the final decision still rested with the executive branch, and for this reason, it is necessary for the premier to undergo questioning," said panel member Huang Chin-jenn (黃勤鎮), adding that they have decided to issue their notice to Chang after the Chinese New Year vacation.
Concerning Monday's ruling by the Council of Grand Justices that the decision-making process behind the scrapping of the plant was flawed, Huang said that, "The verdict reached by the council will be one of the key references for our investigation."
He added that their investigation would center on whether the Executive Yuan's decision-making process was illegal or involved malpractice.
"There should be a set of appropriate administrative procedures to be followed when an important policy is to be changed," Huang said.
Panel member Chang Teh-ming (張德銘) said that cases considered to be flawed in the policymaking procedure were regarded as involving the greatest degree of wrongdoing. "It is too early to jump to any conclusion about what their final decision will be," he added.
The panel declined to comment after meeting Lin yesterday on the grounds that the investigation was incomplete, only saying they had tried to understand the causes behind the policy U-turn made by the ministry.
The Control Yuan may propose corrective action to government departments and take punitive action against public functionaries, including impeachment in the case of the most serious violations of the law or neglect of duties, and censure in less serious cases.
The decision made by the Executive Yuan on Oct. 27 to halt construction of the plant outraged the opposition because the plant had been approved by the previous KMT-led government. The opposition attacked the decision, saying that the executive branch had not shown any respect for a bill that had been passed in the legislature, and therefore appealed to the Control Yuan to penalize the officials involved in the matter.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS