The Central Election Commission’s (CEC) decision to continue allotting funds to the Referendum Review Committee (RRC) despite a resolution by the Legislative Yuan against doing so was a sign of contempt toward the legislature, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said yesterday.
According to the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center, while evaluating the budget for the next fiscal year, the RRC fell under the jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan, but the Executive Yuan amended the regulations and handed authority over the RRC to the CEC.
During the 2008 review of the 2009 budget, the Legislative Yuan said the Executive Yuan had exceeded its authority by handing authority of the RRC to the CEC and passed a resolution that said that the CEC should stop funding the RRC.
However, the CEC continued to allot funds to the RRC.
The CEC cited Article 15 of the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法), which states that an administrative organization can legally delegate part of its power to an organization directly under its jurisdiction, as the basis for its budget appropriation for the RRC.
The Budget Center disagreed, noting that the Referendum Act (公民投票法) does not stipulate any relevant authorization allowing the Executive Yuan to place the RRC under the jurisdiction of the CEC and therefore all procedural and budgetary matters should be executed by the Executive Yuan as the highest administrative body in relation to the RRC.
Although the RRC has only convened seven times since it was established in 2009, the RRC chairman receives a stipend of NT$8,000 (US$262) per month while all 20 RRC members are entitled to NT$4,000 per month, while the seven members of the CEC receive NT$3,000 per month, a total of NT$1.3 million per month.
Chiu suggested that RRC members should only be paid for the days they actually met.
In response, CEC Secretary-General Teng Tien-yu (鄧天祐) yesterday said that the CEC has sought guidance from the Executive Yuan on the issue, and it indicated that according to the Referendum Act, the CEC’s handling of RRC affairs is not against the law, which is why the CEC remains in charge of allotting a budget to the commission.
As to the payments to RRC members, Teng said the CEC allotted the fees in accordance with suggestions made by the Central Personnel Administration.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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