Amid shouting matches and table pounding, a legislative committee yesterday approved a preliminary review of next year’s Executive Yuan budget, cutting it by more than NT$2 million (US$617,000) in the process.
The Internal Administration Committee, dominated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), voted 4 to 2 against a proposal by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) to trim the NT$1.26 million special allowance fund that the Executive Yuan requested for Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
The Executive Yuan projected next year’s revenues at NT$182 billion and expenditures at NT$817 million. Among the controversial items on the budget were new vehicles for the premier and two ministers-without-portfolio.
The Executive Yuan planned to buy a bigger car for Wu, a proposal Chiu criticized as a waste of limited resources amid an economic downturn.
Chiu proposed cutting the NT$1.94 million earmarked for the ministers’ two cars and NT$5 million for two more cars. KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) vehemently opposed the cut, saying it was mandated to replace any cars older than eight years.
KMT Legislator Chiang Yi-hsiung (江義雄) disagreed, saying that the Executive Yuan should be frugal and continue to use existing vehicles if they are in good condition.
DPP Legislator William Lai (賴清德) suggested the Executive Yuan put the plan on hold for another year and see whether the vehicles were still serviceable.
Lai also said some Executive Yuan members’ cars were older than eight years, but Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森) said those cars were reserved for Cabinet members running official businesses and had been banned from being replaced since 1995 to save money.
Lai said there was another car older than eight years but it was not reserved for such a purpose.
Lin said the vehicle was reserved for the premier but that former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) had not changed it.
Chiang proposed putting the matter to a vote. Huang opposed the idea.
The two then launched into a shouting match, with Chiang shouting: “Who do you think you are anyway?” and Huang pounding the table and accusing him of “acting recklessly.”
Just when the bickering between the two was winding down, Lai and Lin began their own shouting match, with Lin insisting on following precedent and Lai pounding the table and accusing him of ignoring reality and being inflexible.
Chiu joined in and chided the Executive Yuan for being “stupid” by making such a rule without taking into consideration vehicle mileage. She proposed freezing the budget until the Executive Yuan presented a report to the committee.
Huang agreed and demanded the report cover all the Executive Yuan’s vehicles and state mileage, maintenance fees and other factors.
Meanwhile, KMT committee members accused the Executive Yuan of doing a worse job than the former DPP administration.
Huang berated it for keeping KMT lawmakers out of the loop. KMT Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) said its Aboriginal policy was worse than the DPP’s.
The committee also requested that the Executive Yuan disclose the information it based its decision on to refuse to let Uighur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer visit Taiwan.
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