The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) will be unable to pay salaries to its employees starting in July if budget bills currently frozen in the legislature are not passed by the end of June, a council official said yesterday.
"We are also considering halting an event in celebration of [the Double Ten] National Day which is held mainly for residents of Hong Kong and Macau," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The budget bills, which have been kept off the legislative agenda for months, has widely hampered the government's operations.
The amount of this year's annual government budget frozen by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) caucuses amounts to NT$221.2 billion (US$6.79 billion), accounting for 14.07 percent of the total budget.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
"They originally said that the MAC's budget could only be passed on condition that five cross-strait policies are implemented," Ker said. "Now they have hijacked the bills in exchange for our support for their version of the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (
The pan-blue camp wants to revise that statute, parts of which were ruled unconstitutional by the Council of Grand Justices in January, in order to create another committee to probe the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (
The frozen budget covers some 210 different items, including personnel expenses and bills for utilities such as water and power.
"We were supposed to pay NT$2.42 million for the first season's management fee, including water and power bills, of this building in January, but we haven't paid that until now," the official said.
"We initially wanted to get a loan from other government agencies, but many of them are facing similar financial troubles," the official added.
In January, the legislature cut the council's budget by some NT$90 million, including 21 percent of the proposed budget. Half of the remaining amount, while passed, was temporarily frozen pending legislative approval.
The MAC official said that the five cross-strait policies the pan-blue camp wants, including the implementation of direct transportation and the opening of Taiwan to Chinese tourists, don't just depend on Taiwan's actions, but also need support from Beijing.
The legislative caucuses, except for Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), have tried to negotiate on amendments to the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute, but failed to reach consensus on some controversial articles.
TSU caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) said that the caucus opposed the statute amendments, because the establishment of another committee would only lead to social chaos instead of bringing clarity to the March 19 assassination attempt.
"I can imagine that committee members would come up with many groundless accusations about the incident," Huang said.
Ker said that the DPP caucus is not against opposed to creating another committee as long as it is constitutional.
The statute revisions have been approved for a second and third reading in the legislature tomorrow.
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