The Executive Yuan convened a provisional Cabinet meeting this morning to pass a proposal requesting the Legislature to reconsider its recent amendment to the Accounting Act. The decision will be sent to President Ma Ying-jeou for approval, after which it will be sent to the Legislature for further action.
"This legislation has stirred social controversy," Premier Jiang Yi-huah indicated after the motion was passed. "To meet the principles of fairness and clarity and avoid any disputes stemming from the execution of the law, the Executive Yuan has decided to request reconsideration of the amendment in accordance with Article 3, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan)."
Premier Jiang also instructed Ministers without Portfolio Schive Chi and Luo Ying-shay to invite the Ministry of Education, National Science Council, Ministry of the Interior, Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) and the Executive Yuan's Legal Affairs Committee (LAC) to jointly prepare a coordinated response to the Legislature's anticipated passage of an altered amendment in the future. He also expressed hope that after internal study, the rules regulating the presentation of receipts to claim government reimbursement can be followed and similar disputes will not occur in the future.
The amendment passed its third reading on May 31, 2013, after which the Legislature sent it to the Executive Yuan for countersignature on June 3, the DGBAS stated. After consideration, the Executive Yuan found the amendment inappropriate and believed it would encounter great difficulty in execution of the law for the following two reasons:
1. Whereas according to Article 99-1, Paragraph 2 of the legislation, elected officials who use public funds for private purposes would not be held criminally responsible, faculty who attempted to use public funds for non-research purposes for themselves or a third party would still be criminally liable under Article 99-1, Paragraph 3. This violates the principle of fairness, as the standards for inappropriate funding use by elected officials, faculty and researchers should all be the same and as follows: the use of public funds for public purposes and the use of public funds for private purposes should be distinguished from each other, and the former shall not be punished while the latter shall be.
2. The decriminalization of certain uses of research funding in the amendment's Article 99-1, Paragraph 2 should also apply to faculty. The version of the legislation which passed the third reading, however, omitted the word "faculty" from this clause, making this unclear. Hence, disputes could arise in the execution of the law.
With respect to the Executive Yuan's right to request reconsideration of legislation, Article 3, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) states, "Should the Executive Yuan deem a statutory, budgetary, or treaty bill passed by the Legislative Yuan difficult to execute, the Executive Yuan may, with the approval of the president of the Republic and within 10 days of the bill's submission to the Executive Yuan, request the Legislative Yuan to reconsider the bill. The Legislative Yuan shall reach a resolution on the returned bill within 15 days after it is received. Should the Legislative Yuan be in recess, it shall convene of its own accord within seven days and reach a resolution within 15 days after the session begins. Should the Legislative Yuan not reach a resolution within the said period of time, the original bill shall become invalid. Should more than one-half of the total number of Legislative Yuan members uphold the original bill, the president of the Executive Yuan shall immediately accept the said bill."
There have been 12 prior cases of the Executive Yuan requesting the Legislative Yuan to reconsider legislation, the LAC says. The most recent was in 2007, in response to legislative approval of amendments to Article 46-1 of the Farmers Association Act and Article 49-1 of the Fishermen Association Act.