Lawmakers from across party lines yesterday charged the government of padding its budget for next year, noting that assorted agencies failed to provide sufficient information for proposed outlays.
PFP Legislator Chin Huei-chu (
"For five decades, top government officials have been entitled to a special monthly fund whose legal basis is a mere note from the Cabinet," Chin told a meeting of the legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee. The committee is responsible for reviewing the Presidential Office's budget.
"I don't understand why the president doesn't need the money while amounts vary among officials of the same rank," she said.
According to the 2003 budget plan, the vice president and the presidential secretary-general may collect a special monthly allowance of NT$305,000 and NT$141,000 each.
The premier may collect NT$240,000, and the legislative speaker and three heads of the Examination, Judicial and Control Yuans can collect NT$141,000.
Officials do not have to account for how they use the funds.
The special fund for the vice premier is NT$75,000 a month, NT$3,500 less than that for his counterparts in the Legislative, Judicial, Examination and Control Yuans. The money for the Cabinet secretary-general is NT$64,000, NT$11,000 less than the sum for officials of the same ranking in the four other Yuans.
"I wonder how these figures are arrived at. The government has not informed the legislature what rules justify the expenditure," Chin said.
She demanded the government shed more light on the spending so lawmakers can better exercise their right of oversight.
Budget officials said the issue that was common practice when Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) ruled the country.
A presidential aide added that the president does not need a special fund because his office already has access to over NT$50 million in the state affairs budget.
In a related development, TSU lawmaker Chen Cheng-lung (程振隆) said he suspected that public universities have been inflating next year's budget proposals.
Chen, a member of the legislature's Education and Culture Committee, said National Taiwan College of Physical Education alone has requested NT$100 million to install saunas and other luxurious facilities.
"Because lawmakers tend to focus their attention on private colleges, public universities think it is OK to prepare their budgets irresponsibly" he said. "There is nothing new about faking expenses under various pretenses."
Chen pointed out that the Taiwan Folklore College has only two instructors but has planned a budget to pay for 181 instructors.
Similarly, National Taiwan University, National Cheng Kung University and National Chengchi University have all asked for a personnel expense that is disproportionate with the size of the staff, he said.
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