Faculty and students from several universities yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Education to demand that it require public universities to establish budget auditing committees.
The group, which included New Power Party Legislator Cheng Hsiu-ling (鄭秀玲), said that an unbiased system for budget auditing is necessary for a democratic academic environment, and the government should amend the legislation regulating how public universities use academic funds and make establishing a budget auditing committee a legal responsibility.
Legislators should reach an agreement before Monday to guarantee that the draft amendment could clear a third reading and be passed before Tuesday next week, the last day of the current legislative session, they added.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The fund management authorities and budget auditing committees on campuses should also include student representatives, and the auditing members should belong to the auditing committee, not the fund management authority, Cheng said.
Budget auditing members should not be considered to be in opposition to a university president, National Taiwan University (NTU) professor Wang Li-sheng (王立昇) said, adding that he has worked on the NTU budget auditing committee.
“University presidents should treat the draft amendment with grace and character, because a budget auditing committee can curb corruption and hold them accountable for the use of school funds,” he said.
Tainan National University of the Arts professor Wu Yung-yi (吳永毅) said that he often sees disputes regarding the management of school funds.
A democratic campus needs to come with a democratic system of budget auditing, he said.
“The spirit of democracy extends beyond just elections,” Economic Democracy Union convener and lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
“An effective auditing system of university funds can be an example of exercising democracy on campus, as it affects not only faculty and students’ rights, but also the future of national education,” he said.
The ministry said the issue was in cross-party negotiations at the Legislative Yuan, and that it would respect and comply with the lawmakers’ decision.
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