Cabinet's reform bill causes a rift

The rift between the Cabinet and the DPP caucus over the makeup of the government showed no sign of letup yesterday as heavyweight DPP lawmakers predicted the downsizing plan has a slim chance of being realized.

Four-term DPP Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) said he would bet his life that the Cabinet can never carry out the venture by the May 2004 deadline.

On April 24, the Cabinet unveiled a draft bill that seeks to reduce the number of government departments from 36 to 25. This was in keeping with President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) campaign promise to build a small and efficient government. Chen has said he hopes the undertaking will be put in place before his present term expires in May 2004.

However Shen, who with colleagues Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) and Chen Chung-shin (陳忠信) has championed a slimmer bureaucracy, said the government has been overly conservative in dealing with the matter.

"I don't think the Cabinet could ever put the proposal into practice, as it is so afraid of alienating Hakka people or overseas Chinese," he told a meeting of the legislature's Organics and Statutes Committee yesterday.

Shen was referring specifically to two agencies -- the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission and Council for Hakka Affairs -- that the DPP sought to abolish while in opposition, but which the Cabinet has decided to retain.

Shen placed the blame chiefly on the Cabinet-level Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, the architect of the reform plan, saying Chen might as well do away with the commission.

"With or without the commission, the Chen administration would function as usual," said the lawmaker, whose volley of criticism put commission director Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠) in a bit of a predicament.

Shen warned the Cabinet not to expect the DPP caucus to help push through the Cabinet's reform bill which he said is more suited to what the opposition parties want.

"Can you honestly say that the Cabinet version is better than that favored by the [DPP] caucus?" he asked Lin.

Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠), another DPP legislator, echoed Shen's discontent, saying some planned councils and commissions should be integrated to better streamline the government.

Under the government's draft, future Cabinets would consist of 15 ministries, six councils, two administrations and four independent agencies.

Lin said his commission would back the Cabinet proposal but agreed that different versions of the reform proposal all have their merits.

In addition to the Cabinet and the DPP caucus, both the KMT and the PFP have introduced their own versions of a reform bill.