Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) yesterday said he feels "powerless" in working with his subordinate agency, the investigation bureau.
Chen's remarks were the first public confirmation of the well-known disharmony between himself and the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau (MJIB).
"Previous justice ministers all had a feeling of powerlessness over the MJIB, and I have the same feeling," Chen said during a broadcast interview yesterday morning. He later repeated the statement several times to media.
He also criticized the "leaders" of the MJIB of "eating cases" -- discarding criminal cases reported without investigating them.
"Some cases reported to the MJIB by the public or by junior investigators to their higher authorities eventually go nowhere. It's evident that the heads of the MJIB handle cases selectively," Chen said.
Under the current centralized system of the MJIB, branches and individual investigators must report cases in which they have leads to MJIB headquarters for approval to ask the prosecutor to launch an investigation.
Chen also said that many prosecutors have complained that they sometimes feel incapable of effectively managing and ordering investigators.
Chen said that many of his proposals come up against resistance in the MJIB, making him feel that the agency is beyond his control. The proposals included merging the anti-corruption department of the MJIB into the planned anti-corruption administration, destroying the so-called "AB Files" -- secret files of former political dissidents -- and stopping political intelligence work.
Nominally the MJIB is under the Ministry of Justice, but the National Security Bureau (NSB) has traditionally conducted its political intelligence affairs.
Chen said because of the NSB's involvement, he knows he will not be able to make personnel changes at the MJIB.
"Even a Cabinet-level body is hardly capable of dealing with this situation," Chen said.
Last Wednesday, when asked by a legislator, Chen and the Director of the MJIB Wang Kuang-ru (王光宇) both denied there was disharmony between them. Wang said, "Minister Chen is our chief, how could there be any [disharmony]?"
However, Chen yesterday said that he could "only hope" the MJIB will cooperate with prosecutors to do an effective job of cracking down on crime.
An official at the public relations office of the MJIB was cited by the media as saying that Chen's frequent remarks over the MJIB may negatively impact the momentum of investigators.
But the public relations officer later retracted the statement.
A high-ranking prosecutor, who acknowledged there could be difficulties between prosecutors and investigators, also objected to Chen's remarks.
"I don't see any advantage to be gained in emphasizing these problems. It may only raise the tension," the prosecutor said.
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