The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday said it would propose a constitutional amendment in the next legislative session to abolish the Control Yuan because of “incompetence.”
Prompted by the Control Yuan’s failure to impeach Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮), who has been convicted of influence peddling and interfering with police matters when he demanded that a drunk driver be released without charge, TSU Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) told a press conference that even Control Yuan President Wang Chien-hsien (王建煊) said the government watchdog “might as well shut down.”
The TSU has always advocated the “separation of three powers” rather than the five powers — referring to the five branches of government: the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan, the Judicial Yuan, the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan — based on the Republic of China Constitution, the lawmaker said.
“Since the government is struggling with its finances and the Control Yuan, which costs taxpayers more than NT$700 million [US$23.3 million] every year, has been malfunctioning, it is time to transfer the rights of audit, investigation and impeachment to the Legislative Yuan and public servants’ property declaration to the Agency Against Corruption under the Ministry of Justice,” Hsu said.
TSU Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴) agreed, saying that the nomination of Control Yuan members has become the president’s personal tool to reward politicians.
At a separate press conference, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus also voiced support for the proposal.
The Control Yuan has not lived up to its mission as a watchdog, DPP legislators Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Pasuya Yao (姚文智) said, adding that impeachment cases accounted for only 3.98 percent of all cases it had handled over the past six years, with each impeachment case costing taxpayers an average of NT$22.5 million.
“Impeachment is one of the most important functions of the Control Yuan, but it has apparently not done its job,” Chen said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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