Investigative agency of the Republic of China government
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Impeachment: The Control Yuan has the power to impeach government officials. Successfully impeached cases then go to the Disciplinary Court of the Judicial Yuan for adjudication.[3] Impeachment of the President and the Vice President of the Republic follows a different procedure and does not go through the Control Yuan.
Censure: The Control Yuan also has the power to censure a government official. The censure is sent to the official's superior officer.[4]
Corrective Measures: The Control Yuan, after investigating the work and facilities of the Executive Yuan and its subordinate organs, may propose corrective measures to the Executive Yuan or its subordinate organs for improvement after these measures are examined and approved by the relevant committees.
According to the current Constitution, the Control Yuan shall consist of 29 members. One member shall be the President of the Control Yuan, and another shall be the Vice President. All members, including the President and Vice President of Control Yuan, shall be nominated by the President of Taiwan and approved by Legislative Yuan (the parliament of Taiwan). Members serve with a term limit of six years.
Prior to constitutional reforms in the 1990s, the Control Yuan, along with National Assembly (electoral college) and the Legislative Yuan (lower house) formed the national tricameral parliament. It functioned similarly to an upper house of a bicameral legislature, though it formed its own separate branch and was indirectly elected by provincial or municipal legislatures with 178 senators elected.[5]
Structure
Members composition
The Control Yuan consists of a council with 29 members, including a President and a Vice President and the National Audit Office. All 29 members and the auditor-general are nominated by the President of the Republic and approved by Legislative Yuan for 6-year terms. The incumbent 6th Control Yuan was nominated by PresidentTsai Ing-wen on June 22, 2020 [6] and later confirmed by Legislative Yuan on July 17, 2020.[7] Members inaugurated on August 1, 2020, and their terms expire on July 31, 2026.
The council of the Yuan, chaired by the Yuan President, is divided into a number of committees to exercise the Yuan's supervision power. No member of the Control Yuan can hold another public office or profession while serving in the branch (according to Article 103 of the constitution), and members must be able to perform absent of partisan control or influence. Members can vote in no more than three committees and can join additional committees as non-voting members. Each committee can have up to 14 members and usually elects a convenor amongst themselves to chair committee meetings.
Standing committees
Special committees
Domestic and Ethnic Affairs
Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs
National Defense and Intelligence Affairs
Finance and Economic Affairs
Education and Cultural Affairs
Transportation and Procurement Affairs
Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs
Committee on Statutory Studies
Committee on Consultation
Committee on Discipline for Control Yuan Members
Committee on Anti-Corruption
The following responsibilities were also assigned by various acts.
Anti-Corruption: The Anti-Corruption Committee is a seven-member committee, which cannot include the President of Vice President of the Control Yuan, which deals with asset declarations by government officials, recusals due to conflict of interest, and political donations.[8]
Examination Invigilation: The Control Yuan also appoints proctors to supervise examinations for civil servants.[9]
The National Human Rights Committee is a ten-member committee under the Control Yuan which investigates human rights abuses, proposes human rights laws, compiles an annual report and promotes human rights education. The President of the Control Yuan must be a member of the committee. The committee was established by the National Human Rights Committee Organic Law on 10 December 2019.[10]
Administrative Appeal Committee
An Administrative Appeal Committee, operated under the aegis of the Control Yuan but consisting of both members and non-members of the Control Yuan, considers administrative appeals which are inappropriate to both the Control Yuan proper and the Ministry of Audit.
National Audit Office
The National Audit Office is headed by an auditor-general who is nominated by the President of the Republic and appointed with consent of Legislative Yuan (parliament), exercises the Control Yuan's power of audit. It consists of five departments:
General public affairs audit department
National defense expenditures audit department
Special public affairs audit department
State-run corporations and government-owned businesses audit department
Financial affairs audit department (also in charge of supervising local government audits)
In addition, most local governments have established the Audit Divisions/Offices, these serve as the subordinate agencies of the National Audit Office. Currently, 21 local governments of the 22 administrative divisions of Taiwan have Audit Divisions/Offices (except Lienchiang County).
Impeachment procedure and notable cases
The Control Yuan is responsible to investigate possible violations on laws and regulations of public servants and raise impeachments if needed. Investigations are initiated by at least two members, and investigation committees must consist of at least nine members of the Control Yuan. The impeachment cases would be determined by a majority vote by members of investigation committee. Successful impeachment cases will then be forwarded to the Disciplinary Court (懲戒法院) under the Judicial Yuan for adjudication. However, the impeachment of the President or Vice President shall be initiated by Legislative Yuan (parliament) and adjudicate by the Constitutional Court under the Judicial Yuan. Details regarding impeachment proceedings are stipulated in the Enforcement Rules of the Control Act.[11]
On 19 February 2020, the Control Yuan impeached five military personnel which it deemed responsible for a F-16 Fighter aircraft crash on June 4, 2018, that killed all on board. The case was forwarded to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission in the Judicial Yuan to determine the punishment.[12]
On 4 June 2019, Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉), a top aide of former Hualien County commissioner Fu Kun-chi, Lin Chin-hu (林金虎), a county government employee, and media section chief Huang Wei-jun (黃微鈞), were impeached for bribery using $5.26 million in public funds.[13][14] Both were found guilty on 18 February 2020; Hsieh was given two demerits and fined $100,000 NTD, Lin was handed a 10% pay reduction for a year, and Huang was given one demerit and fined $100,000 NTD.[15]
On 15 January 2019, Kuan Chung-ming, the president of National Taiwan University, was impeached for violating a law prohibiting public servants from working other jobs. The case was forwarded to the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission in the Judicial Yuan to determine whether he was guilty and the appropriate punishment.[16] Kuan was found guilty on 2 September 2019 and officially reprimanded.[17]
The concept of Control Yuan was introduced by Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People. The theory proposed a separation of powers into five branches (五院; wǔyuàn; gō͘-īⁿ). Sun Yat-sen demonstrated the benefit of separating the supervision and auditing power from the legislature by the designation of the state organs of the Imperial China. He quotes the long tradition of supervision used in past dynasties, ranging from the Censor (御史) established by the Qin (秦) and Han (漢) dynasties to the tái (臺) and jiàn (諫) offices established under the Sui (隋) and Tang (唐) dynasties (tai were selected to supervise civil officials and military officers, while jian were selected to counsel the emperor on supervisory matters) to the Board of Public Censors (都察院) selected under the Ming (明) and Qing (清) dynasties. Most of these offices also operated local and provincial branches to supervise local governments. Under the Qing dynasty, the Board of Public Censors consisted of forty or fifty members, and two presidents, one of Manchu ancestry and the other of Han Chinese ancestry.[18][19] They were, in theory, allowed to send one censor to participate in the meetings of all government boards. The Board's powers were minimized by the time of political flux which preceded the end of the Empire.
In the 1947 constitution, the Control Yuan, together with National Assembly and Legislative Yuan, thus formed chambers of a tricameral parliament according to the Judicial Yuan's interpretation number 76 of the Constitution in 1957.[21] The Control Yuan was given the power to request documents from other government agencies and investigate them for violations of law or neglect as under Sun Yat-sen's ideology. The auditor-general was considered elected by the Control Yuan, who shall be nominated by the President of the Republic with consent of the Legislative Yuan, who was responsible for submitting reports on government budgets.[22] Finally, the Control Yuan had confirmation power for the President, Vice President and members of the Judicial Yuan and Examination Yuan.[23][24]
After a successful Northern Expedition campaign, the Kuomintang secured its leadership in China and started to build the Nationalist government according to Sun Yat-sen's ideology. Five branches (Yuans) were created under the Kuomintang's party-state administration. During this time, the Auditing Yuan (Chinese: 審計院; pinyin: Shěnjì Yuàn) was established in February 1928, but in February 1931, the Control Yuan was established and the Auditing Yuan was downgraded to the current ministry-level National Audit Office within the Control Yuan.[25] The creation of Control Yuan on 16 February 1931 was the last establishment of the five-Yuans.[26]
With the reduction of members due to age, elections were held from 1969 to 1986 to elect new senators to the Yuan from Taiwan, and the cities of Taipei and Kaoshung were soon represented.
Until 1993, the Control Yuan's legislative work was limited to helping to audit the national budget, which would then be presented to the Legislative Yuan. The other actions the then chamber took were its impeachment, confirmation and censure powers, applied whenever necessary.
In 2016, Democratic Progressive Party's candidate Tsai Ing-wen was elected as the President in 2016 Taiwanese presidential election and Democratic Progressive Party won the majority of Legislative Yuan seats in 2016 Taiwanese legislative election. On 10 December 2019, the Legislative Yuan passed the National Human Rights Committee Organic Law (國家人權委員會組織法), which established the National Human Rights Committee under the Control Yuan. Its duties include investigating human rights abuses, proposing human rights laws, compiling an annual report, and educational promotion of human rights, in accordance with the Paris Principles.[31] The committee will consist of 10 members, one of which is the President of the Control Yuan who heads the committee.[10] It launched on August 1, 2020, with former democracy activist Chen Chu as president.[32]Kuomintang member Justin Huang was discussed as a potential vice-president, but he declined the position after receiving criticism from both the KMT for crossing party lines without consultation and the DPP for his role in the construction of the Taitung Miramar Resort while he was county magistrate, for which the county government was censured by the Control Yuan.[33][34]
Elections and terms
The Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of Chinaretreated to Taiwan in 1949, the year following the elections after the enactment of the 1947 constitution. As the Kuomintang government continues to claim sovereignty over mainland China, the term limit of the original Members of the Control Yuan was extended until "re-election is possible in their original electoral districts." In response to the increasing democracy movement in Taiwan, limited supplementary elections were held in the Free Area (Taiwan) starting 1969. Members elected in these supplementary elections served together with those who were elected in 1948. This situation remained until a Constitutional Court (Judicial Yuan) ruling on June 21, 1991, that ordered the retirement of all members with extended terms by the end of 1991.[36]
Since the 1992 ratification of the constitutional amendment, the Control Yuan was reorganized from a chamber of parliament to an independent agency that still performs most of its designated constitutional powers. Since the 4th term, the President and Vice President of the Control Yuan, together with other members, were nominated by the President of the Republic and approved by the Legislative Yuan (the now-unicameral parliament of Taiwan).
^Constitution of the Republic of China – Chapter IX, Article 91: "The Control Yuan shall be composed of Members who shall be elected by Provincial and Municipal Councils, the local Councils of Mongolia and Tibet, and Chinese citizens residing abroad. Their numbers shall be determined in accordance with the following provisions:
Five Members from each province;
Two Members from each municipality under the direct jurisdiction of the Executive Yuan;
Eight Members from Mongolian Leagues and Banners
Eight Members from Tibet; and
Eight Members from Chinese citizens residing abroad."