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Civic watchdog takes legislature to task over Council of Agriculture budget error

Citizen Congress Watch head Ho Tsung-hsun yesterday points out discrepancies in a budget approved by a legislative committee last week. PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) yesterday accused lawmakers of laxity after finding errors in a Council of Agriculture (COA) budget that a legislative committee approved last week.

As part of the government’s plan to expand domestic demand, the council had submitted a plan to add or repair agricultural infrastructure.

The total amount of the proposed budget — which had been submitted by the council and approved by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) before being reviewed and passed by the legislature’s Economics Committee last week — did not add up to the sum of the listed items in a document distributed to lawmakers last week, the group said.

“The total amount of the budget that passed initial review at the legislature was NT$2,825,600,000 [US$92.9 million], but when we added up all the figures listed in a detailed document distributed to legislators, the sum was NT$2,869,900,000: There is a NT$44 million difference,” CCW executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) told a news conference outside the legislature.

“First, there’s the COA, then the CEPD, and then the 113 lawmakers and more than a thousand office aides,” he said. “It’s unimaginable how such an error could have occurred.”

The budget has moved on to a second reading, but the group urged lawmakers to reject the budget and return it to the Cabinet.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said the error occurred because lawmakers at the Economics Committee didn’t work hard enough.

“With an absolute majority in the committee, the governing party can pass anything it wants,” said Huang, who is not a member of the committee. “But [the legislature] will see how it can fix that problem now.”

When reached by the Taipei Times for response, the COA said it was not responsible for the error.

“Our planning department sent the original plan with the budget to the CEPD,” said Chen Hui-chuan (陳彗娟), director of the council’s accounting office.

“But when the legislature asked for detailed information, the CEPD reorganized the budget plan before sending it to the legislature,” she said. “I suppose something went wrong when they restructured the budget plan.”
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