As noted before, the Control Yuan doesn’t exist. This hasn’t stopped it auditing charities and government bodies. It also hasn’t stopped it being proposed for a hefty 12% increase in its budget.

The Control Yuan, the nation’s highest watchdog body, has been without members since Feb. 1 because the legislature has refused to approve the nominations submitted by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), but this has not stopped the Executive Yuan from proposing a massive NT$240 million increase for the Control Yuan’s fiscal 2006 budget. According to the central government’s overall budget submitted to the Legislative Yuan for approval, the Control Yuan’s share amounted to NT$2.26 billion, an increase of NT$240 million over fiscal 2005. The proposed budget covers all normal expenditures of the Control Yuan, including salaries for 24 members and staff, administrative expenses and allowances for members to make inspection tours abroad.

The worrying thing about this is that we now have one branch of government which is appointed by no one, answerable to no one, funded by everyone (to the tune of ~NT$100 per person in Taiwan) – and that this situation is likely to continue for the forseeable future. The intransigence of the two sides (the president and the legislature) means there is a good chance that Taiwan will be without a real control yuan until 2007 or 2008 (depending on election results). Unfortunately, both sides probably see this deadlock as politically useful: the DPP see it as an example of the KMTs attempt to block everything they do – and a good argument for their pet project of constitutional reform, while the KMT see it as indicative of the DPPs inability to do the most basic of things right. That the Control Yuan does important work – like impeaching corrupt officials (lucky corruption isn’t a problem in Taiwan then, isn’t it?) – seems to be being overlooked by both parties.

At least the Control Yuan no longer has the ultimate power of impeachment of the president. However, given their cavalier attitude to the constitution and the fact that they still list it as one of their powers, who’s to say what they will or won’t do?