The Control Yuan today filed a petition at the Constitutional Court for a constitutional interpretation of budget cuts passed by the Legislative Yuan.
Yang Chang-hsien (楊昌憲), director of the Control Yuan's Department of Supervisory Investigation, accompanied by his attorney, Wang Shou-yen (王首雁), presented the petition, but declined to speak to the media.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
In a news release issued on Thursday last week, the Control Yuan said that the Legislative Yuan's "substantial" 96 percent cut to its operational expenses left the nation's highest supervisory body just NT$10 million (US$302,821) for the year.
The budget cuts constitute a breach of the principle of separation of powers and "severely endanger" the Control Yuan's ability to carry out its essential monitoring duties, it said.
The Control Yuan said that, despite making adjustments, the funding cuts — which it described as "exceeding reasonable limits" — have already impacted its operations.
The supervisory body, one of five main branches of Taiwan's constitutional government system, is thus seeking a ruling from the court to uphold constitutional principles and ensure its capacity to monitor government actions is preserved, it said.
The Control Yuan's move came after President William Lai (賴清德) promulgated this year's central government budget on Friday in accordance with procedural precedent.
The government budget included cuts imposed by the Legislative Yuan following a rejection of the Executive Yuan's motion to reconsider the budget.
The Control Yuan's budget stands at about NT$1.09 billion, including more than NT$800 million for personnel costs.
The Control Yuan had originally budgeted NT$240 million for operational expenses this year, but the Legislative Yuan slashed that amount by NT$230 million, it said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang
RSS