After three-and-a-half years of paralysis, the Control Yuan reopened yesterday, with members vowing to remain impartial even as groups gathered outside to call for probes into 10 scandals allegedly involving President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his stint as Taipei mayor.
In a speech at a ceremony yesterday, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien said he and his colleagues would be neutral in their new roles.
“When investigating cases, the Control Yuan looks only at black and white — it is indifferent to blue and green,” Wang said.
Ma’s nomination of Wang and the other Control Yuan members was approved by the legislature last month, but Control Yuan vice presidential nominee Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) and three other nominees, affiliated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), were rejected.
Wang has said in media interviews that the Control Yuan will initially probe cases involving senior officials of the DPP administration, including the Papua New Guinea diplomatic scandal and the controversial arms firm Taiwan Goal.
“To begin with, there are more cases regarding the DPP as it is the former ruling party, but it’s likely that we will also handle cases involving the KMT in the future,” Wang was quoted as saying at the time.
Under the five-branch governmental system spelled out in the Constitution, the Control Yuan’s main task is to exercise the power of impeachment and censure of elected officials and civil servants, as well as to audit government spending.
Wang yesterday emphasized the importance of righteousness and expressed the hope that all Control Yuan members would pursue justice.
“It’s neither economic development nor technology that exalts a nation, it is justice. Without justice, there is no economic development and technology,” he said.
The government’s highest watchdog had been idle since the terms of the previous members expired on Jan. 31, 2005, as the KMT and its pan-blue allies refused to review former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) nomination list.
During the time the Control Yuan has been inactive, approximately 32,000 cases have piled up for review, 300 of which will require in-depth investigation, the Control Yuan has said.
Later yesterday Wang called a meeting of Control Yuan members to discuss which cases should be prioritized.
The Control Yuan said it would start by probing 24 cases of particular concern to the public, including the Papua New Guinea scandal, Taiwan Goal and the “state affairs fund” embezzlement allegations against Chen.
Each of the 24 Control Yuan members was assigned a case in a drawing of lots.
“We hope at least one-quarter of the 24 cases will be completed by the end of this year,” Wang said.
Wang said the Control Yuan might question Chen if necessary.
Wang said the Control Yuan would also look into another 24 cases involving senior officials that had been referred for investigation by other government agencies and 48 cases of administrative irregularity identified by the Ministry of Audit.
Ma presided over a swearing-in ceremony for Wang and the other Control Yuan members earlier yesterday at the Presidential Office and expressed his hope that the Control Yuan would rid the nation of social ills, but treat accused officials and civil servants fairly during investigations.
Meanwhile, the DPP caucus said yesterday it was preparing 16 cases to refer to the Control Yuan, two of which involved Wang.
“We ask the Control Yuan to investigate former minister of finance Wang’s order that the National Property Administration under the ministry sell the property rights to the former KMT Central Committee building on Renai Road to the KMT in 1990, and the financial crisis caused by Wang’s allowing a number of new banks to be established in the early 1990s,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a press conference.
Ker said Wang might have helped the KMT and the new banks earn illegal profits.
“We ask Wang not to intervene in the two cases involving himself,” Ker said.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang and Mo Yan-chih
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS