The Control Yuan on Thursday censured both the Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Culture for severe oversight over the delay in electing Public Television Service (PTS) board members
The station’s board of directors has not been able to function effectively for more than two years because of a lack of quorum and disputes over nominees.
The Public Television Act (公視法) stipulates that the board can only function when there are between 17 and 21 directors.
Currently there are only eight board members, including three that passed the review process last year.
The Control Yuan said the Executive Yuan has willfully set the matter aside, despite repeated petitions by former Government Information Office (GIO) ministers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Philip Yang (楊永明), adding that the unexplained delay was grounds enough for such a censure.
The now-disbanded GIO had already been warned in August 2011, the Control Yuan added.
The Control Yuan’s censure said that despite the Executive Yuan’s decision to bring up the issue in February last year after the combined presidential and legislative elections, it failed to submit a list of nominees until June last year, two months after the Legislative Yuan had formed a review committee.
The Executive Yuan has also failed to push for more nominations after the review committee selected three board members in August last year, the Control Yuan said, adding that candidates to fill the remaining slots were not put forward until January.
Not only has the Executive Yuan made no further nominations, it also has not checked on the progress of candidate reviews, the censure said.
The Executive Yuan’s “passive and negligent attitude” toward the issue constitutes “a serious negligence of duty,” the Control Yuan added.
It also said that the ministry — as the TV station’s direct supervisor — was making the nation a laughing stock due to the slow pace of its administrative processes.
Commenting on the matter, PTS Union director Wang Yen-chieh (王燕杰) said the union hoped that the vacant board seats could be filled as soon as possible.
There are a lot of issues that require decisions, but they cannot be attended to because the board of directors remains incomplete, Wang said, adding that the union wished to have one of its own members on the board to ensure that “the PTS is well balanced.”
“We would ensure that the union’s representative has no affiliation to any political party,” Wang said, adding that the union only wanted a more transparent understanding of how the decision-making process of the PTS board works.
A PTS staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity said: “Of course, the faster we make a decision on board members the quicker we can restore our image in the eyes of the public. Although the board is not instrumental to many of the PTS’ operations, it is a key part of the decision-making process for many key policies.”
In response to the censure, Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) said the Executive Yuan continues to mediate any differences within the Ministry of Culture on the issue of PTS board members.
“We regret to hear that the board still lacks the number of members to function effectively,” Cheng said, adding that the Executive Yuan would back any motion by the ministry to amend laws if the problem stems from the legal system.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yen-ling and Chao Ching-yu
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard