Pan-blues vow to block GIO budget in Legislative Yuan

"The GIO has no right to collect money from each Cabinet department to set up a fund to promote the nation in general. Each agency is responsible for doing their own promotion work."

Kuo Su-chun, KMT legislator

Disagreement over the government's "UN for Taiwan" initiative was the major roadblock during yesterday's legislative review of next year's budget for the Government Information Office (GIO).

The GIO said it needed funds to promote the nation's overall image, but opposition legislators accused it of working only for the interests of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

"The GIO has no right to collect money from each Cabinet department to set up a fund to promote the nation in general. Each agency is responsible for doing their own promotion work and the GIO does not have the authority to take over that responsibility," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said.

She was referring to the NT$140 million (US$4.3 million) the GIO has spent on its UN bid.

Pan-blue lawmakers have repeatedly accused the GIO over the past few weeks of "demanding" that all Cabinet-level departments foot part of the bill for the "UN for Taiwan" campaign.

GIO Minister Shieh Jey-wey (謝志偉) has rebutted the accusation, saying the money the GIO spent came from collective funds used for domestic and international information campaigns.

"The GIO never asked the departments to give us a single penny for the initiative," Shieh said yesterday.

KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) proposed freezing two-thirds of the GIO's proposed budget on the grounds that the GIO has "failed to do its job" of improving the nation's image.

"Over the past few years, the government has spent hundreds of millions on advertisements promoting Taiwan. But the results have been very poor. Taiwan continues to be isolated from the UN and the WHO. Even the US, our best non-ally, is reluctant to pay attention to us and Taiwan-EU relations have grown cold," she said.

Other pan-blue legislators also said they would oppose the budget because they are afraid the GIO will use the money to campaign rather than utilizing it for the year's projects.