The Council of Grand Justices, which interprets the Constitution, recently ended a long-standing power struggle between the central and local legislatures by determining that local government officials are not obligated to respond to requests from the Legislative Yuan to show up and answer its questions.
The Justices also made it clear that the Legislative Yuan can no longer use the threat of budget cuts to force local officials to answer questions from legislators during their annual review of subsidiary funds to municipal, city and county governments.
The interpretation was handed down last week on an appeal filed by members of the former Taiwan Provincial Government in 1995. It is expected to remove any doubts local-level administrations might have that their autonomy has been undermined by the national-level legislature.
The issue, which has long plagued the relationship between the various levels of government and led to heated contention over getting local officials to show up at legislative meetings.
The Legislative Yuan, can, by virtue of the Constitution, request government officials show up at its committee meetings to answer questions. An effective weapon to ensure the officials actually show up was the legislature's power to approve funds for local "autonomous" governments.
The Justices, however, concluded that the constitutional power of the national-level legislature should be "duly regulated" in matters concerning local autonomy.
"Local autonomy, which is entitled to certain independent powers under the Constitution, shares national powers with the central government. The hierarchy of the government structure is completed with the establishment of both central and local-level assemblies," the interpretation reads.
"Officials from local administrations, as a result, are not obligated to respond to requests by committees of the Legislative Yuan, except those who are specifically required to by law," the Council noted.
The Justices did not, however, elaborate on what or whom such exceptions would include.
The Taiwan Provincial Assembly, which was dissolved after the downsizing of the Taiwan Provincial Government last year, had long felt its powers diminished by such intimidation from the Legislative Yuan. It finally filed the appeal for a constitutional interpretation in 1995.
The Council's ruling, which determined that the Legislative Yuan has only "restricted power" in matters concerning local autonomy, has also effectively freed local officials from fears that they could suffer reductions in their funding if they rejected lawmakers' demands.
"The Constitution requires the central government to assess the financial conditions of the local administrations and provide them with funds subsidiary to their budgets if necessary. To ensure the effective operation of local governments, however, the Legislative Yuan can neither cut nor shelve the subsidiary funds to them by using the rationale that local officials rejected their request to present themselves for questioning," read the final conclusion of the Council.
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