Officials of the Control Yuan, the nation's top watchdog, yesterday criticized the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for the agency's past methods of selecting members for its high profile Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Review Committee (環境影響評估審查委員會).
The move comes as the terms of office of incumbent EIA Review Committee members are about to expire.
Control Yuan members raised the issue at a meeting held by the EPA yesterday and said that past decisions made by "inappropriately selected" members had created a negative impact on the environment.
The EPA is scheduled to appoint new members to the committee by the end of this month. The new members will then serve for two years.
According to EPA head Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), the administration convened a task force at the end of June to oversee the matter, members of which have been selected from key ministries.
"A task force established for choosing new members of the EIA committee will integrate various opinions from related Cabinet agencies," Hau said.
Among the criticisms the Control Yuan leveled at the EPA was that it had in the past chosen committee members with a bias toward professors from certain universities and experts with specific scientific backgrounds.
"We all too often see committee members hailing from National Taiwan University in particular and experts with water pollution treatment backgrounds," said Ma Yi-kung (
Committee members from a narrow range of research fields have failed to tackle problems comprehensively, Control Yuan members added.
"Taking the EIA for the Pinnan Industrial Complex (
The Control Yuan representatives went further to say that some committee members paid little attention to reviewing projects and that some often failed to attend scheduled review meetings.
"The EPA should not have chosen members of the EIA Committee perfunctorily," said Ku Teng-mei (古登美), a Control Yuan member.
Concerning the controversial Pinnan project, several members have not attended committee meetings since 1998.
By the end of last year, the EIA committee had convened a total of 66 meetings since the developers, the Tuntex Group (
The Control Yuan once censured the EPA over its handling of the Pinnan EIA.
Answering questions raised by Control Yuan members, Hau said that the process of appointing future committee members would be conducted transparently and fairly.
According to the EIA Act, two-thirds of the 21 seats on the EIA Review Committee are to be awarded to experts and scholars.
"This year, for the first time, we will accept recommendations from a number of social groups," Hau said of future appointees, adding that this would show that the process took place fairly and openly.
Hau said that the seven remaining positions would be allocated to officials nominated by relevant Cabinet agencies.
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