Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said he is open to the possibility of the Taipei City Council slashing the city’s second reserve fund, for which he has planned to allocate a record-high budget of NT$1.5 billion (US$45.44 million).
Ko made the comment before giving a presentation to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Council caucus.
“It is not just the city council’s right, but also its obligation to monitor the city’s budgets. The administrative body is obligated to report to the council while requesting budgets. Communication is a necessary component of a democratic system... If they do not like it [the budget proposal], there is no need to insist,” Ko said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei city councilors have threatened to cut the second reserve fund, saying that Ko should have submitted budget proposals by following legal procedure rather than treating the fund as his “personal account.”
According to rules set out by the Taipei Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, city government agencies can request capital from the fund to cover unexpected budget increases while carrying out a project, or to finance responses to emergencies and natural disasters.
Ko defended his allocation of the fund, saying Taipei is “not so unusual” compared with the other five municipalities in terms of funds set aside for emergency use, which include the disaster relief fund, and the first and second reserve funds.
Taipei’s allocation of the fund constitutes just 1.46 percent of its total budget, ranking third among the six municipalities after Taichung and Tainan, whose allocations of the fund account for 1.65 percent and 1.62 percent respectively of their annual budgets, Ko said.
He said new city government projects planned after budget proposals are delivered to the city council are held up for 18 months before their budgets are passed, and that the second reserve fund would help to avert such a scenario.
Ko said the world today is more vulnerable to the threat of new diseases and extreme weather, and the fund would allow for more flexible allocation of capital to finance efforts to respond to such threats.
However, DPP Taipei City Councilor Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that some of her colleagues have reservations about Ko’s budgeting of the fund, and that she hopes a solution can be reached as to how adjustments can be made.
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