Legislature frees emergency funds

The legislature yesterday agreed to let the Executive Yuan draw NT$3 billion from an NT$9.3 billion tax redistribution fund designed to cope with emergencies faced by local governments.

"We have fully responded to the Executive Yuan's demand, in light of the urgency of rescue efforts in the aftermath of disasters," said Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who hosted an inter-party negotiation in which the decision was made.

The decision was made in accordance with a resolution adopted by the legislature early this year, under which the Executive Yuan is required to obtain the legislature's approval before drawing on the fund.

The legislature, which suspects that the fund might become "private money" of the Executive Yuan, adopted the opposition-proposed resolution as a way to monitor the Cabinet.

As the legislature is in recess until September, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) had requested the negotiation be held to handle the Executive Yuan's urgent need to use the money to handle disasters expected during the typhoon season.

The Executive Yuan originally had intended to ask the legislature to lift the resolution restricting the use of the money, citing a violation of the purpose of the fund in the first place.

According to a paper issued by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the NT$9.3 billion fund is intended to cope with local emergencies, but the existence of such a resolution has hampered the Executive Yuan's disaster-relief efforts.

Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), chief executive of the DPP legislative caucus, said his party did not raise the issue yesterday because the atmosphere of the meeting was not as good as expected.

Tsai said leaders of opposition caucuses attending the meeting were unhappy with the DPP's recent proposal to have authorities conduct a thorough investigation of the KMT's illegally acquired assets.

Lawmakers yesterday spent most of their time negotiating just how much money the Executive Yuan should be allowed to draw from the fund.

Opposition lawmakers maintained that the Executive Yuan could only use NT$3 billion, though the DPP asked for NT$4 billion.

Also, the opposition decided that the Executive Yuan should send to the legislature documents indicating how the NT$3 billion is used, to facilitate scrutiny by lawmakers.

As to the rest of the fund, lawmakers maintained that the Executive Yuan should present plans on the use of the money to the legislature in case there is a need to draw upon the fund in the future.