The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), with support from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), yesterday proposed a constitutional amendment to abolish the Control Yuan.
TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and KMT Legislator Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) proposed amendments to articles 3, 4 and 7 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution.
The amendments would abolish the Control Yuan and transfer its audit power to the Legislative Yuan, including giving the latter oversight of the Executive Yuan’s annual accounting and finances.
Photo: Taipei Times
A constitutional amendment must be proposed by at least one-quarter of the 113-member Legislative Yuan, and passed by three-fourths of the members at a meeting with a quorum of three-fourths of the legislature.
At a news conference prior to a final tally of supporters, Huang said he was confident his party would reach the 25 percent threshold necessary to submit the amendment.
Abolishing the Control Yuan has been a long-term goal of the party, one that former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) also campaigned on in his presidential run last year, but it did not have enough seats in the Legislative Yuan to make it a reality, Huang said.
“The public has had enough of this committee of ‘big baby’ supervisors,” Huang said, referring to members of the Control Yuan.
They abuse their power, violate the law and only work on behalf of their own party, he added.
Huang later on wrote on Facebook that the proposal has surpassed the required support of at least 29 lawmakers, thanking his fellow opposition lawmakers for their support.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said that the DPP has long supported the abolition of the Control Yuan, including in the prior Legislative Yuan, but not as an act of political revenge.
The DPP is willing to work with opposition lawmakers to promote constitutional reform and improve the system, she added.
If the proposed constitutional amendment is passed, it must be voted on by eligible voters, with the number of “yes” votes exceeding half of the total number of eligible voters.
Separately, the TPP yesterday also proposed extending the legislative session until Aug. 31, with KMT caucus secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) expressing support.
The KMT previously proposed extending the session until July 31, drawing criticism from the DPP, which accused it of seeking to dodge accountability.
Wu said that opposition lawmakers are obstructing justice by using an extended legislative session to “maintain their immunity from prosecution.”
Moreover, by extending the legislative session, opposition lawmakers, many of whom are facing recall votes, can continue to try and “buy votes” through populist bills such as a military pay increase and a proposed NT$10,000 (US$337) universal cash handout, Wu said.
Chinese-language media have reported that each extra day of a legislative session would cost NT$10 million, Wu said, adding that it is a waste of taxpayer money and does not benefit the country.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS