The Overseas Chinese Affairs Council stated that there were two project reports in total that day, namely "Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee's management of business trips abroad, overseas reception and use of official resources" and "Review of the Execution Schedule of the Inspection Fees for Officials Sending Personnel Abroad for Officials in the Fourth Quarter of 2014". (Provided by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council)
Due to the controversy over the abuse of power by former Chairman Xu Jiaqing of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council, the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan last Thursday (15th) invited acting chairman Li Yanhui to report on the management of business trips abroad, reception abroad and the use of official resources. Many legislators questioned the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council for submitting a blank written report. In this regard, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council clarified today (19th) that there were two project reports on that day. The first was a complete written information with a total of 5 pages and 1,733 words; the second one was submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review because the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council has not compiled a budget for the "inspection" category in the past years.
On the 15th of this month, the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee invited Acting Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council Li Yanhui to report on the "Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee's management of business trips abroad, reception abroad, and use of official resources." Kuomintang convening committee member Xu Qiaoxin questioned that the written report of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council was only one page and the content was blank.
In this regard, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council stated that there were two project reports in total that day, namely "Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee's management of business trips abroad, overseas reception and use of official resources" and "Review of the Execution Schedule for the Inspection Expenses of the Plan for Officials Sending Personnel Abroad Abroad in the Fourth Quarter of 2014". Among them, the first item of the project report is complete written information, totaling 5 pages and 1,733 words; the second item involves the implementation of inspection expenses for personnel sent abroad for official duties. Since the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council’s budget for official overseas trips is divided into three categories: “inspection”, “visit” and “meeting” according to the nature of the business, no budget for the “inspection” category has been prepared in the past years, and there have been no related inspection cases. This has been submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review in the past.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Council will provide relevant information on business trips abroad in the fourth quarter of last year and January to September this year to the Legislative Yuan for review and supervision.
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Council stated that the three types of reports related to business trips abroad, including "inspection", "visit" and "meeting", have been previously provided to the Legislative Yuan for reference, and the budget and final account information of various funds are also publicly available and have been disclosed. In order to further explain the plans and expenditures for business trips abroad, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Council will subsequently provide relevant information on the plans and expenditures for business trips abroad in the fourth quarter of 2014 and January to September 2015 to the Legislative Yuan for review and supervision.
Overseas Chinese Affairs Council: Overseas plans and expenditures are openly subject to legislative supervision
The Overseas Chinese Affairs Council emphasized that plans and expenditures for business trips abroad are handled in accordance with relevant systems and procedures, and relevant information continues to be disclosed and subject to the supervision of the Legislative Yuan. In the future, it will adhere to the principle of openness and transparency of information, provide information to explain facts, actively respond to external concerns, and will impose stricter standards on itself.
