Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Chen said the Control Yuan did not interview him or other officials from the ministry before issuing the censure. He said the ministry only learned of the censure from reporters yesterday evening.
The censure was against the Public Construction Commission, the Minister of Justice and its Investigation Bureau and the National Police Administration for what it called "inefficiency in preventing black gold from intervening in public construction projects."
The censure's criticism of the justice ministry may come as a particular surprise to many, because Chen has been ranked the most popular Cabinet member in several polls, with the public holding him and prosecutors in high regard for their performance in fighting crime since he assumed office last May.
The Control Yuan said that until Nov. 10, prosecutors nationwide had only drawn up two indictments for black gold crimes (organized crime, corruption and vote buying) although the ministry had received 473 reports of such crimes since it launched its anti-black gold program. The Control Yuan said that the ministry had achieved little.
Chen rejected the criticism.
"Three months were just not enough to resolve grave black gold crimes," Chen said, adding that the Control Yuan would be acting inappropriately "if it regarded the prosecutors' failure to draw up indictments within three months as inefficient. It would be simply asking the prosecutors to indict hastily and carelessly."
"I think this kind of demand is dangerous and strange," he said at a press conference.
Vice justice minister Hsieh Wen-ting (
According to the ministry's latest statistics, from last June until this Tuesday prosecutors had solved 1,805 black gold cases out of 3,298 reports, including 421 indictments and 330 decisions not to indict.
The Control Yuan also blamed the justice ministry for being slow in passing several laws necessary to fight black gold.
"The fact is that the bills and draft amendments have been held up in the Legislative Yuan," Chen said.
Chen said the ministry and the Cabinet had actually been very efficient in drafting and passing the bills, and that many bills and draft amendments had already been sent to the legislature.
"It would be very unfair if the Control Yuan blamed us for this," he said.
The Control Yuan in its censure said the ministry failed to communicate and coordinate with the Cabinet and the legislature with maximum effort to get the legislation passed.
Hsieh also rejected the Control Yuan's comments that prosecutors from four special investigative teams, established to crack down on black gold, were not assisted by officials from other ministries or experts in various fields.
"One of the main reasons why we established the special investigative teams was to integrate investigative resources, and we are now doing very well," Hsieh said.
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