The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should, in accordance with the freedom of government information principle, list the expenditures of its confidential budget proposal, which is the highest in six years, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said.
The ministry proposed a “diplomatic spending confidential budget” of NT$1,821,387,000 (US$56.71 million) for next year, which is NT$634.669 million, or 53.48 percent, more than this year’s NT$1,186,718,000, the center said.
It is also NT$1,070,230,000, or 142.48 percent, more than the financial statement for confidential spending for last year, which was NT$751,157,000, it said.
Photo: Yang Cheng-yu, Taipei Times
The ministry diplomatic spending confidential budgets proposed between 2020 and for next year ranged between NT$1,000,266,000 and NT$1,821,387,000, and although the amounts fluctuated from year to year, next year’s budget would be a significant increase, it said.
The confidential budget for next year, the highest in six years, would account for 6.01 percent of the ministry’s total annual budget, the center said.
The ministry said the use of the confidential budget would be in compliance with the Enforcement Rules of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act’s (國家機密保護法施行細則) articles 5 to 7.
The articles identify the circumstances in which government data can be classified to avoid “exceptionally grave damage,” “serious damage” or “identifiable damage,” which includes “a termination of the diplomatic relations or substantive foreign relations,” “a disruption or sabotage of the consultation, agreement, negotiation or cooperation with other countries,” or the enhancement of other countries’ capability or the diminishment in Taiwan’s capability to collect, analyze, process or utilize intelligence information.
Classified information should not be the norm and there is a lot of leeway for interpreting the act, the center said, adding that the public has previously speculated of the ministry’s confidential budget and criticized it for avoiding public scrutiny.
In compliance with the freedom of government information principle and to avoid controversy, the ministry should list its expenditures, allowing the information to be scrutinized objectively, and ensuring that government resources are regulated and monitored, as well as to protect the public’s right to know how the government is spending their tax dollars, it said.
Citing the Legislative Yuan’s passage of amendments last year to the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) that no longer allow the indefinite classification of information, the center said the ministry has still not declassified many documents as of this month.
Under the act, information classified before 2003 should be reassigned as classified before Oct.1, 2005, and those that were not reassigned must be declassified.
Of the ministry’s 47,978 books classified before 2003, only 2,663 books were reassigned, while the remaining 45,315 books have not been declassified or reassigned for more than 17 years, the center said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS