The Executive Yuan and lawmakers yesterday accused the Control Yuan of breaching the separation of powers after it challenged the constitutionality of the law on ill-gotten party assets and redacted an investigation report it used as the basis of a request for a constitutional interpretation.
The Control Yuan on Friday last week published a report that questioned the constitutionality of the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例) and filed a request for a constitutional interpretation.
On Tuesday, the Control Yuan redacted the report, deleting a paragraph detailing a written reply from the Cabinet to the Control Yuan over the latter’s doubts on the law, which gave rise to criticism that it was tampering with the report.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) asked why the Control Yuan would delete the paragraph if it really took the Executive Yuan’s reply into consideration.
“Does [the redaction] suggest the Control Yuan’s acknowledgement that it did not take the Executive Yuan’s opinion into consideration?” Hsu asked.
The report said that the establishment of the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee skirted the Basic Code Governing Central Administrative Agencies Organizations (中央行政機關組織基準法) — an issue the Cabinet ignored.
Hsu said the committee was established based on the party assets act, which is special legislation of the basic code.
“The basic code was created by the Legislative Yuan, as was the assets act. The Executive Yuan’s actions are governed by laws passed by the legislature,” Hsu said. “How can the Control Yuan accuse the Cabinet of breaking the law?”
The problem is with the Legislative Yuan if the assets act is problematic, Hsu said, adding that the Control Yuan’s accusations were in violation of the constitutional principle of the separation of powers.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said that the report bore a striking resemblance to a request for a constitutional interpretation of the assets act prepared by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers last year.
“Why does the Control Yuan report have the same wording as the KMT request? Were the two produced by the same ‘factory?’” Lee asked.
The Control Yuan later said that the report had not been redacted, adding that part of the preface was accidentally omitted when it was re-uploaded.
A re-upload was needed because of technical issues preventing users from downloading the report, the Control Yuan said, adding that it has now been posted in its entirety.
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