Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators on the Education and Culture Committee yesterday said they had reviewed the committee’s Japan trip plans this month, and questioned whether it was a waste of funds and an attempt to stall legislative reviews.
It is Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei’s (羅廷瑋) turn to chair the committee, but he spent Monday to yesterday inspecting artificial intelligence education and lunch arrangements in Japan, and is to spend another three days visiting schools in Taichung and Taipei, DPP Legislator Chen Pei-yu (陳培瑜) said.
Lo’s travel plans are unreasonable, as his party extended the legislative session to review the central government budget, but instead of doing that, he is using public funds to conduct inspections, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of KMT Legislator Lo Ting-wei
By law, Lo’s travels — as part of his duties — would be covered by the Legislative Yuan, but the KMT yesterday said its legislators would pay for the visit’s expenditures themselves.
The KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) had rammed through a measure to prolong the current legislative session, which should have ended last month, saying it was to ensure that the government’s budget is reviewed and passed.
So far, Lo has only arranged for reviews of a few budgets: the National Palace on May 6, the Ministry of Culture on May 7 and the Ministry of Sports for today, legislative data showed.
All budgets have reached the question-and-answer stage, but no concrete action has been taken on any items, the data showed.
Conversely, DPP convener Wu Li-hua (伍麗華) said all the budgets under her purview have concluded their reviews, and several legislative proposals have been forwarded to the legislature.
“I have done everything I needed to,” she said.
Separately, the DPP yesterday demanded that Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Chou Wan-lai (周萬來) provide the legislature with an exact figure for the cost of extending the legislative session.
The current legislative term has been extended multiple times, with this session set to be the longest. Its extension to Aug. 31 would see it segue directly into the next session.
DPP Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) said the repeated extensions are bleeding the government and the public dry, adding that even Chou was unable to explicitly state how much the extensions are weighing on the government in terms of overtime, power and utilities bills, as well as administrative overhead.
Chou last year issued a letter to legislators urging discretion in the use of inspection funds, Lin said.
It is absurd that the opposition party has delayed the central government funding review to this month and intends to delay it even further by sending its legislators to Japan for an inspection, Lin added.
The KMT is attempting to keep the legislature too busy to look into charges such as alleged corruption, national security leaks and signature forging for the recall petition, she said.
Per Paragraph 8, Article 4 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文), legislators cannot be arrested or detained while the legislature is in session, unless they have been caught in the act or a court has approved their arrest.
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