The Cabinet has asked lawmakers to free up a NT$155 million (US$5.31 million) tranche of the nation’s second reserve fund to avoid a partial government shutdown, a top official confirmed yesterday.
Swathes of the Executive Yuan would run out of funds for essential operations if the emergency budget is not activated, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Deputy Minister Chen Hui-chuan (陳慧娟) told lawmakers in a meeting at the legislature.
The at-risk departments include the Presidential Office, Executive Yuan, Control Yuan and the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, she said.
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
Her comments follow a fierce political battle over the general budget that has led to recall elections being called for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators next month.
The requested funds include NT$7.5 million for hosting the International Ombudsman Institute’s Australasian and Pacific Ombudsman Region Conference, Chen said.
The Control Yuan is to organize the meeting and provide accommodations for the meeting’s attendees from Sept. 3 to Sept. 5 in Taipei, she said.
The Presidential Office needs NT$4.17 million, including NT$2.91 million for utilities, NT$760,000 for conducting presidential inspections and national affairs conferences, and NT$480,000 for public information operations, the Executive Yuan said in the request.
The Control Yuan needed NT$79.7 million, including NT$53.31 million for administrative and information management costs, NT$3.44 million for holding meetings and associated expenses, and NT$7.21 million for traveling and conducting investigations.
It also needed NT$9.43 million for the National Human Rights Commission, as well as NT$6.28 million of information technology expenses, it said.
The Ill-Gotten Party Assets Committee needed NT$5.04 million for the remainder of the year, as its NT$11.73 million budget had been slashed or suspended, the Executive Yuan said, citing the committee’s internal reports.
Separately, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference that the government was weighing options for legal remedies regarding amendments to the Armed Forces Pay Act (軍人待遇條例修正案).
A coalition of KMT and Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers on June 10 voted to pass amendments that would restore previously slashed military pensions and provide pay raises and perks for active-service members.
The bill came five months after the opposition-dominated legislature made historic cuts to the nation’s defense budget, including funds for drones and the indigenous defense submarine program, as well as a 30 percent reduction in operational costs.
The Cabinet has been conferring with experts to discuss whether the government would return the disputed portions of the budget to the legislature for reconsideration or pursue another legal option, Lee said.
The Executive Yuan’s concern is that the opposition’s bill breached the legislature’s fiduciary duties, she said.
Lawmakers passed the bill increasing military pensions and salaries without consulting the Cabinet or identifying a source of revenue to fund any significant increases to the budget, she said.
Opposition lawmakers breached Article 91 of the Budget Act (預算法), Article 5 of the Fiscal Discipline Act (財政紀律法) and legal precedents in constitutional interpretations and other court rulings, she said.
Article 3 of the Constitution allows the Executive Yuan to file a motion for the legislature to reconsider a bill within 10 days of its passage, or challenge the legislation through the Constitutional Court.
When asked by reporters, Lee did not elaborate on which course of action the Cabinet would pursue, saying only that all legal options would be considered.
Last year’s amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed by the opposition — which stipulated that the court must have a quorum of 10 judges to hear cases — are being litigated.
Currently, the court has eight sitting judges, leaving the judges’ authority to hear cases uncertain.
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