The Legislative Yuan exercised its power to approve personnel appointments for the president, vice-president and supervisory committee of the 7th Supervisory Yuan today (29th), but the relevant personnel cases were not approved. The Supervisory Yuan deeply regrets that the failure of the personnel case to pass has resulted in an idling of powers and an impact on the protection of people's rights and interests, and solemnly protests against the accusations of "beating one person in the whole institution" and "a tool to hunt down political opponents."
The Supervisory Yuan stated that the term of the 6th Supervisory Committee expired on July 31, 2015, and the 7th Supervisory Committee failed to take office, resulting in the inability to exercise important supervisory powers such as impeachment, correction and correction, and the loss of the last line of defense to urge the government to improve, which has greatly affected the people's rights and interests.
The Supervisory Yuan is a national constitutional organ established by the Constitution. It is responsible for supervising government administration, correcting violations and misconduct, and holding public officials accountable. It also helps protect the rights and interests of the public by accepting people's complaints and investigating cases. The Supervisory Yuan explained that if the Supervisory Committee is unable to take office, it will be unable to exercise its powers. If the people encounter illegal and improper treatment by public agencies or their rights and interests are damaged, they will lack an important constitutional supervision and protection mechanism, which is not a blessing to the people.
The Control Yuan pointed out that due to the failure of the Supervisory Committee to take office, thousands of people's complaints every month and major cases transferred by various agencies cannot be handled in a timely manner, and the follow-up and improvement work of completed investigation cases will also be interrupted; the Control Yuan is also unable to exercise its constitutional power to protect the people in cases of procurement fraud, food safety, child protection, public workplace bullying, etc. that are of public concern.
Regarding the enforcement of Sunshine Laws, the Board of Supervisors stated that Sunshine Laws such as the Political Contribution Law, the Public Officials’ Property Declaration Law, and the Public Officials’ Conflict of Interest Avoidance Law are related to political fairness, public office integrity, and the prevention of improper transfer of benefits. Due to the vacancy of the Supervisory Committee, the Integrity Committee cannot be formed and convened, resulting in the stagnation of procedures such as reviewing and sanctioning, determining fines, and announcing cases. The lack of an effective punishment mechanism seriously weakens the supervision of honest politics and the fairness of the system, and affects the people's expectations for a clean government.
As an independent human rights protection and promotion agency, the National Human Rights Commission was established in accordance with the United Nations "Paris Principles" and is responsible for preventing systemic human rights violations and protecting the rights and interests of vulnerable groups. The Oversight Yuan also pointed out that the failure of the Human Rights Commissioner to take office will prevent relevant investigations, systematic interviews, and supervision of international human rights conventions from proceeding smoothly, making it difficult to fully implement national reporting and supervision obligations, and will have a major adverse impact on Taiwan's human rights integration with international standards.
The Supervisory Yuan emphasized that supervisory powers, enforcement of the Four Sunshine Laws, and human rights promotion and protection are the people's rights and interests protection mechanisms established by the Constitution and laws. During the period when powers cannot be exercised, the people most directly affected are the people who have petitions, reports, or whose rights and interests have been damaged and are in urgent need of relief.
The Board of Control Yuan also reiterated that in all cases related to the Sunshine Act, it upholds administrative neutrality, follows relevant operating points and regulations, clarifies relevant facts within its authority, and conducts preliminary investigation procedures. The accusations of "beating one person in the hospital" and "being a tool to hunt down political opponents" are completely unfounded and there is no excuse to accuse them. They are also a huge slander against grassroots civil servants who strictly adhere to neutrality and work hard. We hereby solemnly protest.
