Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) condemned a decision by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) to bring foward the deadline for the submission of budget proposals from certain government agencies.
Chen Ting-fei said that, with it being less than three weeks since the legislature’s standing committees began meeting, the KMT’s apparent intention of affirming the agencies’ plans without negotiating with the opposition is “going too far.”
The legislature’s Education and Culture Committee is responsible for reviewing the budget plans of several government agencies, such as the Ministry of Education and the Atomic Energy Council, the legislator said.
According to the committee’s past practice, the agencies under its jurisdiction for review take turns proposing and explaining their plans at committee meetings, while legislators’ offices identify errors and propose budgetary changes after review — usually around November, she added.
Chen Ting-fei said the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Atomic Energy Council, the National Palace Museum and Academia Sinica all have crucial roles and significant budgets, making supervision by legislators even more important.
Past committees typically set the deadline for receiving budget plans in November, she said.
However, this year the deadline has been moved forward by a month, she said, surprising legislators and their staffers and forcing legislative assistants to work late, reviewing the proposals.
“Rushing the reception deadline for the submission of budget statements like this is nothing other than an attempt to abet [the easy passage of the these statements],” she said.
Each committee is supposed to have its two committee conveners take turns reviewing the proposals.
For example, in the Education and Culture Committee, the KMT is responsible for setting the review agenda for proposals from the Ministry of Education, the Atomic Energy Council and the National Palace Museum, while the DPP is responsible for reviewing those of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The Ministry of Education and Atomic Energy Council’s budget plans are due this week, but the latter has not been scheduled to make its business report at the committee and would have its budget plan go straight to review.
Chen Ting-fei expressed concern that the review process is about to start, even though the committee had its first meeting for agency reports less than three weeks ago — on Sept. 22 — citing the budget proposals in question.
She said that the Ministry of Education has a proposed budget of NT$ 217.9 billion (US$7.154 billion) and the Atomic Energy Council, NT$3 billion.
As the nation’s antinuclear movement has gained momentum, the KMT knows very well that the Atomic Energy Council budget would be closely examined, but decided to bypass examining its operational report, she said.
“If serious problems are found, there would be no time for [legislators] to propose [revisions] to the budget plans,” she said.
In response, Chen Shu-hui said that the budget statements arrived at the Legislative Yuan over the summer recess, so legislators have had plenty of time to review them, adding that the agencies’ operational reports are not related to budgetary review and the processes could take place simultaneously.
There is also no problem of ending the submission period early, as she informed all committee members a week ahead of the deadline, she added.
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