Lawmakers yesterday questioned Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Wei Kuo-yen (魏國彥) over his overseas trips, with several legislators accusing him of misappropriating the budget allocated for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in December to finance his trips.
Citing Wei’s trip to the US from Aug. 5 to 13 as an example, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said that the number of EPA officials participating in the fact-finding mission had been downsized from seven to three, including Wei, so there could be enough money for the minister to travel first-class.
The trip was originally set to run for 10 days, but was later extended to 13 days without any explanation from the EPA, Chao said, as he accused the minister of misappropriating the budget reserved for the UNFCCC, which is filed under use for multinational meetings and negotiation.
Wei should heed the distinction between the budget set aside for his personal visits and those for international meetings, as the latter involves the interests of the entire nation, Chao said at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environment Hygiene Committee meeting.
Chao also alleged that Wei only visited a couple of agencies that deal with the climate-change issues during a trip to the US, but visited a number of irrelevant institutions, such as German-based Siemens AG and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the UK.
In response, Wei said he visited the US in response to an invitation by US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, and that all arrangements regarding his trips were carried out in accordance with the parameters set forth by the Executive Yuan.
Chien Hui-chen (簡慧貞), executive secretary of the EPA’s Office of Greenhouse Gas Reduction, said that the costs of Wei’s trip to attend the UNFCCC conference, which is to be held in Lima, Peru, would be fully covered by the budget and that the expenditure from the minister’s recent trip would not jeopardize the missions he is tasked with for his year-end visit.
However, when DPP Legislator Yang Yao (楊曜) asked Wei to expound on the accomplishments he achieved during his trip to the EU, the minister declined to name the officials he met, saying that doing so would disrupt the agency’s dealings with the UNFCCC.
He also declined to explain what the dealings were, but said that he would provide the list of officials to Yang privately, prompting the legislator to say that the nation’s political system does not allow the EPA to plan any secret budget, and that government officials should detail their accomplishments after their trips.
The minister was also stumped for an answer when DPP Legislator Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) asked him about the amount of substandard food oils recycled after last year’s food scare implicating several companies that mixed edible oil products with copper chlorophyll and lower-cost cottonseed oil, including Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co (大統長基), Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團) and Flavor Full Food Inc (富味香).
The EPA “has not made any progress” since the last food oil controversy broke out almost a year ago, Liu said.
Wei several hours later cited information provided by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which showed that of the 2,719 tonnes of substandard food oil recycled, 2,680 tonnes of problematic oil was used in the refining of biodiesel and 39 tonnes were used in the making of road paint and machinery lubricants.
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