Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
He estimated that the money wasted through corruption every year makes up about 30 percent of the government's annual total expenditure, or about NT$510 billion.
Yesterday was the first time Chen went to the legislature to face interpellation by lawmakers since he assumed the justice minister's portfolio. Unlike some of the new Cabinet's scholars-turned-ministers, the former four-term legislator was not given much of a hard time by his former colleagues.
However, the reputed disharmony between Chen and the director of the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau, Wang Kuang-ru (
In his policy report yesterday, Chen also stressed that his plan to create a nationwide record of every citizen's bank accounts and other assets would not inconvenience people, nor would it violate citizens' privacy -- as some have charged.
"The passage of the telecommunication monitoring law has shown that for the purpose of cracking down on crime, the public can accept a monitoring system," Chen said. "Just like telecommunication monitoring, a bank account record could only be checked with a warrant."
The ties between the ministry and its Investigation Bureau was another focus of questions from lawmakers. KMT legislator Lin Hong-tsung (
Chen clearly disagreed, but Wang, after some hesitation, said he would be glad to see it happen.
Lin asked some 20 bureau staffers who were at the session to vote "if you agree with your director." Almost all raised their hands, leaving Chen speechless.
DPP legislator Perng Shaw-jiin (彭紹瑾) asked if the alteration of the plan for a new anti-corruption administration was due to the Investigation Bureau's reluctance to have some of its departments merged into the new institution.
Chen denied the resistance had affected the plan.
"The final agreement that the bureau's anti-corruption department would not be merged into the new administration was not due to such resistance. Instead, the overriding concern was what would be the best for the anti-corruption effort." Chen said.
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State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
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