Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday apologized to the public for the party’s involvement in the controversial amendment to the Accounting Act (會計法), while DPP headquarters and its legislative caucus launched separate efforts to correct the legislation foul-up.
The amendment, passed at the last minute in closed-door cross-party negotiations on Friday last week before the legislature went into recess, was supposed to exempt research grants given by the government to professors and elected officials’ special allowances from being audited.
However, the word “teaching [faculty]” was missing from the amended act’s Article 99-1, which means professors may still face prosecution.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, convicted officials, such as former Non-Partisan Solidarity Union legislator Yen Ching-piao (顏清標), who has been in jail since Feb. 19 after he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for using nearly NT$20 million (US$668,500) in taxpayer money to visit hostess bars, will be released once the amendment is promulgated.
“The DPP has to take responsibility for its role in the legislation, which the general society has found difficult to accept. As [party] chairman, I would like to apologize to the people on behalf of the party,” Su said.
In an effort to correct the mistake, which would require either a veto from the Executive Yuan or a reconsideration by the Legislative Yuan before the president signs it into law, Su met Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) at the Executive Yuan yesterday afternoon and asked Jiang to veto the amendment in accordance with the Constitution. Jiang turned down his request.
According to Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Jiang reiterated the Cabinet’s stance that it has no plan to veto the bill.
The regulatory agency of the Accounting Act, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, has made its view on the amendment very clear, that decriminalization could be applied to the use of research budgets by professors, Cheng quoted Jiang as saying.
Meanwhile, DPP lawmakers decided to take the matter into their own hands by proposing a reconsideration.
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said at the legislature that she had launched a petition for a reconsideration and should be able to collect the required minimum of 20 signatures to have the proposal discussed in the extra legislative session which is set to begin on Thursday next week.
“If the Executive Yuan refuses to shoulder the responsibility, then the Legislative Yuan should hold itself accountable for the mistake. No matter how the amendment turns out, it shouldn’t be what it looks like now,” she said.
Yeh also called on the Presidential Office to hold off signing the amendment to give the Legislative Yuan ample time to discuss the controversial amendment.
DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), one of the participants in the closed-door meeting that approved the amendment, has come under fire from some pan-green supporters and DPP lawmakers, who said they were never informed about a “secret deal” to free Yen in exchange for stopping the prosecution of professors accused of misusing public grants.
Several DPP local officials urged party headquarters to remove Ker’s position as a legislator-at-large seat, while others called for him to step down as caucus convener.
Former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also urged the DPP to assume responsibility for its mistakes so supporters would keep their faith in the party.
Tsai said the error was more than a “documental mistake” and must be corrected immediately because “there was no point in promulgating the law when everyone knows it is wrong.”
Tsai urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to order the Executive Yuan to submit a veto within 10 days according to Article 3 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution.
Separately, in a pre-recorded interview with Broadcasting Corporation of China which was aired yesterday morning, Jiang reiterated his position that the Executive Yuan would not veto the bill.
A typographical error led to the omission of the word “teaching [faculty],” but this will not affect the application of the amendment to professors, because in the preamble, it is clearly stated that the Accounting Act was revised to include ‘professors’ in the decriminalization package,” Jiang said.
He added that it was not the Executive Yuan’s intent to exclude “professors” from the amendment.
Jiang said the legislature had consulted with the Executive Yuan about the amendment before it went to second and third reading, but apparently, the legislature did not accept the Executive Yuan’s suggestion that exceptions to the decriminalization shall be made to expenditure of public funds for private purposes.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
RSS