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.
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