The Executive Yuan recently passed a draft amendment to some provisions of the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act. In addition to officially including "tsunamis" and "barrier lakes" as statutory natural disasters, the system has also extended the reach of the system to within administrative organizations. It plans to establish "disaster prevention chiefs" in central and local government agencies, and promote the "professionalization" of local disaster prevention offices and the establishment of "disaster prevention cooperation centers" in grassroots offices.
Today, when the frequency and intensity of extreme weather have increased significantly, this amendment attempts to fill the gaps in powers and responsibilities for compound disasters in the past and strengthen the horizontal coordination capabilities of the administrative system. Its direction of change deserves recognition. However, from the perspective of organizational management and public administration practice, if any legal reform is to be implemented from "paper provisions" to "the first line of resilient defense," the key always lies in whether the "pairing of powers and responsibilities" and the "resource structure" are smoothly connected.
1. Disaster Prevention Chief System: Substantial legal authority must be given to avoid falling into the "concurrent inducement dilemma"
The draft stipulates that the disaster prevention chief of each agency shall be concurrently served by the deputy chief or supervisor. It is intended to break the long-standing "departmentalism" of the public service system through the influence of senior leaders. However, in organizational management practice, concurrent positions often face the challenge of "unequal power and responsibilities". The deputy heads of various agencies are already burdened with extremely heavy business divisions. If the name of the chief of disaster prevention is only given in the law, but his "substantive command power", "budget review power" and "assessment power" for cross-bureau disaster reduction business are not clearly defined in the detailed rules, then under the incentive structure of organizational operations, the chief of disaster prevention can easily degenerate into a symbolic coordination role.
To make the disaster prevention chief system truly effective, the central government should clearly give the disaster prevention chief the legal authority on "normal disaster reduction preparations" in subsequent sub-laws, giving him the ability to mobilize resources from non-traditional disaster prevention units. Otherwise, the cost of inter-department and inter-bureau communication friction will still fall to the front-line personnel.
2. Disaster assignment and monitoring: After the division of powers and responsibilities, technology and budget must keep up.
This revision of the law places the tsunami under the Ministry of Interior and the barrier lake under the Ministry of Agriculture, clearly establishing the "boundary line" for disaster prevention and relief, and ending the past disputes over ambiguous rights and responsibilities. However, from the perspective of the disaster management cycle, delineating the competent authorities is only the first step. Both tsunamis and barrier lakes are extreme disasters with "high uncertainty, strong suddenness, and extremely short response time." The key to disaster prevention and relief lies in "front-end technological monitoring and early warning." After taking over legal powers and responsibilities, the central competent authority must simultaneously obtain exclusive budgetary support to establish a high-precision monitoring network and early warning system. If the front-end warning information cannot be transmitted immediately and accurately, the front-line local personnel who perform evacuation at the back-end will still face huge contingency risks and administrative burdens.
3. Local professionalization and collaboration centers: The central government should focus on dedicated resources to avoid "recruitment without food"
Another highlight of the draft is to change the local disaster prevention office to a "full-time" one, and to set up a "disaster prevention cooperation center" in township and city offices to combine private volunteers and substitute manpower. This design aims to deepen the resilience of communities and grassroots in disaster prevention and relief. However, what cannot be ignored is that local governments and grassroots offices have been restricted by the "Organizational Guidelines for Local Administrative Agencies" and financial constraints for many years, and their staff positions are extremely tight. If the amendment to the law only adds the statutory quota of "setting up centers, preparing plans, and reporting for review" but does not allow the central government to simultaneously allocate "subsidy for dedicated posts" and "operational budgets" in accordance with major policies, it may create a dilemma of "the central government legislates and local governments pay the bills." When grassroots agencies are forced to use existing marginal manpower to absorb new administrative procedures, it may dilute the original disaster prevention and relief energy.
The core value of "professionalism" lies in the accumulation of professional experience and the protection of dedicated manpower, rather than in the formal organization listing.
The amendments to the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act demonstrate the government’s policy vision in facing threats in the new era. But the last mile of system implementation depends on whether a reasonable "organizational incentive mechanism" can be constructed. It is hoped that during the subsequent bill review process, the Legislative Yuan can simultaneously pay attention to the actual supporting facilities for grassroots implementation and ensure that both "division of powers and responsibilities" and "allocation of resources" are given equal emphasis. Only by giving local and grassroots governments sufficient manpower, budget and legal authorization can the good intention of amending the law be truly transformed into a solid line of defense to protect the safety of people's lives and property.
