By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus will propose that legislators are empowered with the right to investigate so they can better monitor the government, TSU legislator Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) said yesterday.
Currently lawmakers have the right of document request and to establish a document request committee in the Legislative Yuan.
The TSU plans to propose to amend the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) to give lawmakers rights to investigate and to establish investigation panels or an investigation committee, Huang told a press conference.
The party would also propose that the Legislative Yuan be given the right to establish a hearing committee, which could call legally-binding hearings and punish those who offered false testimony at a public hearing, Huang said.
“The issue has been discussed in the Legislative Yuan for a long time and we think that the [investigative] rights are long overdue. It’s a tool to enforce the check and balance function as regulated by the Constitution,” she said.
The TSU intends to propose the amendment because the Control Yuan, the Investigation Bureau and the Agency Against Corruption have all failed to stamp out corruption and malfeasance and several government agencies have either refused to submit required documents or have provided false testimony in the past, TSU legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said it respects the TSU’s right to propose the amendment, but the proposal would require party negotiation before being able to move forward.