Legislature needs ethics committee

The legislature should set up an ethics committee that would be responsible for regulating lawmakers' conduct as part of an effort to upgrade the country's political culture, a government panel has urged.

Hsu Li-tsung (許宗力), a member of the government reform committee that is headed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), recently floated the idea of the committee, which he said would be a necessary tool with which to eradicate corrupt politicians.

Hsu noted that several lawmakers are also serving as board members of securities houses, a practice that he calls a conflict of interest.

He cited former independent lawmaker Lo Fu-cho (羅福助) as an example. Lo, who owns Dahsin Securities House, was recently charged with financial fraud and is banned from traveling overseas.

"There is ample room for the legislature to improve the ethical standards of its members," Hsu said in his report. "Its Discipline Committee remains inactive, although it did suspend Lo from the legislature for six months last year after he had beaten a female colleague."

To preserve internal harmony, most lawmakers shy away from enforcing ethics if there is no external pressure being applied.

Last November, Taipei prosecutors indicted former KMT lawmaker Liao Hwu-peng (廖福本) on charges of check fraud. Liao was also suspected of having profited from selling bogus stock certificates.

Hsu also suggested that elected officials must declare all political donations they receive. He proposed amending electoral codes, noting that existing rules only require candidates to disclose their campaign expenses.

"That being so, elected officials are not obligated to give an account of the political donations they receive after taking office," Hsu pointed out.

To address that, he said the Central Election Commission should be made an independent agency and strengthened to look into the matter.

Stan Shih (施振榮), another committee member and head of the Acer group, echoed the view and recommended that the government must publish all political-donation information on the Internet.

The reform committee is expected to reach a conclusion by the end of this month.