The preliminary draft of a plan to establish an anti-corruption administration has been completed and will be submitted to Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
To avoid abuse of power within the future anti-corruption institution itself, an oversight committee composed of members from outside the administration would be established, according to the draft.
"Openness and transparency would be greatly emphasized," said a key official from the ministry's Government Ethics Department.
The ethics department is in charge of drafting plans for the formation of the anti-corruption administration and would be reorganized following acceptance of the plan to form part of the new administration.
If approved by Chen, the draft would be further revised before being reviewed by the Executive Yuan and passed to the Legislative Yuan
Two weeks ago, Chen criticized the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) for "handling cases selectively" which led to a sharp debate between Chen and the bureau's head.
It is hoped the draft being submitted today will make for an anti-corruption administration free of such potential problems.
"According to our design, an anti-corruption committee would be formed to do `post examination,'" the official said. "All cases which have been subject to inquiries by the administration but were not submitted to prosecutors due to a lack of evidence or other factors would be compiled as reference files. And the members of the committee would be able to examine the files."
"More importantly, the anti-corruption administration officials would make up no more than one third, or even less, of the members of the committee," the official said.
The government ethics department now has approximately 3,500 officials, most of whom are deployed through different government agencies. In Chen's original proposal, officials would have been independent of the government bodies they are supposed to be monitoring.
Chen wanted to set up field anti-corruption branches separate from other governmental agencies.
However, the new draft has changed that proposal. Current government ethics officials will remain in post, though efficiency-oriented adjustments are still included in the revised draft, the official said.
"Cracking down on corruption is important, but so is preventing corruption, and the deployment of anti-corruption officials at government agencies can certainly help," the official said.
Chen's proposed field investigators would still need to be hired and the ministry plans to recruit 500 to 600 people. According to the draft, field investigators will have the same authority as police.
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