The Control Yuan has issued 20 percent more censures to the Cabinet this year compared with last year, Control Yuan President Chang Po-ya (張博雅) said yesterday during an annual review of the Executive Yuan, calling for immediate action to improve official integrity and policy enforcement.
As of Monday, the Control Yuan issued 99 censures to the Cabinet this year and issued a total of 159 censure orders requiring government agencies to make corrections.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior have each received 13 censure orders, followed by the Ministry of Education, which received 12.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Whether in terms of the number of censure orders or the number of agencies censured, the figures are much higher than last year with a 20 percent increase. Premier William Lai (賴清德) and Cabinet members are asked to place high importance on the Control Yuan’s censure orders,” Chang said.
The Control Yuan has impeached 32 public officials this year, including three political appointees, two prosecutors and one military general.
Twelve officials were impeached for violating a ban on government employees running a side business or engaging in business activities.
The Ministry of Education led other agencies in the number of impeached officials, with eight ministry officials being impeached, followed by the defense ministry (five) and the justice ministry (two).
The Control Yuan has instructed the Cabinet to amend 80 laws and regulations considered to be out of touch with the social milieu, and 19 have been revised.
“The rights exercised by the Control Yuan are a supervisory mechanism to monitor government conduct, allowing it to investigate the government for negligence or misconduct,” Chang said.
The Control Yuan has launched probes into controversial cases, including the MeHAS City (美河市) housing complex scandal in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) and the license renewal of Asia Cement Co’s quarry in Hualien County’s Sincheng Township (新城), and the investigation reports have been cited as major references for government conduct, she said.
Control Yuan members made suggestions on various public issues, including the protection of Aboriginal rights to employment and education, the implementation of the New Southbound Policy with Austronesian culture, immigrant rights, transitional justice, military management, housing situations, pensions, college education, traffic management, telecom fraud prevention and juvenile correctional facility management.
The Control Yuan in 2015 impeached Lai when he was Tainan mayor for failing to attend question-and-answer sessions at the city council as Lai had abstained from council meetings over vote-buying allegations against former Tainan City Council speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教), who was later convicted of bribery and disqualified as councilor.
Lai yesterday attended only half of the Control Yuan sitting before attending a meeting regarding economic matters at the Presidential Office.
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