INEFFECTUAL:The proposal to trim the Cabinet from 37 ministries and councils and limit staff numbers is ill-judged and insufficient, several academics told a forum
By Chris Wang / Staff Reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration did not spend enough effort on the impending reorganization of the Executive Yuan, nor present the right vision for the plan, academics said at a forum in Taipei yesterday.
The biggest-ever overhaul of the government is due to begin on Jan. 1, aimed at streamlining government agencies and revitalizing the Executive Yuan.
Under the plan, the number of ministries and councils will be trimmed from 37 to 29; government functions will be re-evaluated and human resources reallocated and personnel numbers capped.
Taiwan Brain Trust chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said the program’s measures and goals violated the spirit of “re-organization” because the reform plan has been nothing but talk and election promotion, which could cause irreversible damage.
The current plan cut the number of ministries and councils from 37 to 29, which is still a large number compared with other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, most of which have about 20 government agencies, Ming Chuan University professor Chen Chao-chien (陳朝建) said at the forum hosted by the Taiwan Brain Trust.
The reform also failed to identify the function of each agency and make appropriate integration, Chen added.
For example, he said, the Oversea Compatriot Affairs Commission should be merged with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Veterans Affairs Commission would be better off if it was merged into either the Ministry of National Defense or the Ministry of the Interior.
Under the current proposal, agencies that should be independent, such as the central bank and the Financial Supervisory Commission, will be placed under the Executive Yuan, Chen said.
“Only five agencies — the Ministry of Justice, the Hakka Affairs Commission, the central bank, the National Palace Museum and the Central Election Committee — will be reorganized in January, while the rest of the restructuring will be put on hold,” said Chen Yaw-shyang (陳耀祥), a professor of public administration and policy at National Taipei University.
One major problem is the organization laws of dozens of agencies have not yet been passed by the legislature.
“It seems to me that all government agencies and officials are now busy with the upcoming elections and nothing else matters to them,” he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could not carry out its planned administrative reorganization when it was in power between 2000 to 2008 because it did not have a legislative majority, said Hsu Chih-hsiung (許志雄), a professor at National Chiayi University.
Ma and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) have a legislative majority, but they have failed to take the time to properly formulate an important policy, Hsu said.
“They only want to list [the reorganization] as one of their accomplishments so they can promote this during the election campaign,” Hsu said.
Judging from the failed effort in the past three years to establish a ministry of energy, the reform plan appears too conservative to help Taiwan adjust to fast-changing global trends, DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said.