The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that the Control Yuan had committed “self-castration” in failing to censure the Presidential Office and the National Security Bureau (NSB) over a cigarette smuggling case last year.
Security officials accompanying President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) during a state visit to Caribbean allies in July last year allegedly attempted to smuggle 9,797 cartons of cigarettes by using their security clearance and China Airlines’ online duty-free store.
Control Yuan members Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), Wang Mei-yu (王美玉) and Peter Chang (張武修) on Thursday revealed the results of their investigation and issued corrective notices to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Customs Administration.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The Control Yuan told the Presidential Office and the NSB to improve their operations and discipline NSB officials to prevent a similar incident, they said, adding that under the Constitution and the Control Act (監察法), the Control Yuan has no power to censure the Presidential Office or the NSB.
The KMT in a statement yesterday said that the Democratic Progressive Party has unrestrained power and Tsai is becoming “an authoritarian monster.”
There are precedents of the Control Yuan impeaching Presidential Office and NSB officials for dereliction of duty or illegal acts, the KMT said.
However, in the cigarette smuggling case, the Control Yuan chose to circumscribe itself, making it nothing more than a “paper-made” apparatus, it said.
The KMT said that Control Yuan members have become timid in the face of former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu (陳菊), who is to become Control Yuan president next month.
It is also ridiculous that Kao said that they did not impeach NSB special forces personnel because they had been given demerits, the KMT said, adding that if, by Kao’s standards, officials given demerits should not be impeached, then it is curious why the Control Yuan should continue to exist.
Despite its more than year-long investigation, the Control Yuan issued the censure at a dubious time — just before Chen is to assume office next month, while its corrective notices deliberately evaded the main targets, it said.
“The public has lost its expectations in the agency, which is now to be made up of members appointed as a result of pork-barrel politics,” it said.
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