According to the United Daily News and the Liberty Times, the Overseas Community Affairs Council's report to a legislative committee on October 15 ran one page and contained no budget figures. The council said it has no budget item called 'kaocha' (inspection tour); lawmakers called that wordplay.
The United Daily News reported that the Legislature's Foreign and National Defense Committee took up the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) report on overseas travel on October 15. The committee had asked for how official trip expenses, receptions abroad and public resources were used, but the OCAC submitted a single page with no budget figures. The Liberty Times covered the same matter under a headline saying the council's overseas-inspection report had been handed in blank for 13 consecutive months.
광고 문의 · 300×250The background is the resignation of former OCAC chair Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) amid allegations of misusing public resources, which the United Daily News said prompted the committee's request.
The council's explanation
Acting chair Li Yen-hui (李姸慧) said the OCAC has never had a budget category called 'kaocha' (inspection tour); travel is budgeted under 'inspection,' 'visits' and 'meetings,' and there were no such cases in prior years, the United Daily News reported. Li denied wordplay and said a task force has been set up to look into the allegations against Hsu. Deputy chair Lai Li-ying (賴麗瑩) said the council answered on the basis of the term used in the committee's question, and that it is willing to provide budget execution details for overseas trips.
Kuomintang lawmakers pushed back hard. Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) said the committee had plainly asked for overseas-visit budgets and called the reply wordplay. Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄), the KMT caucus secretary-general, likened the report to a 'book without words' and said the council was brushing off the Legislature with blank paper. Chen Yi-hsin (陳以信), who heads the party's communications committee, said he had never seen such a report, accused Li of dereliction and disrespect toward the Legislature, and demanded a public apology.
A ruling-party lawmaker also raised concerns. Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said the content was inappropriate and that the council should have communicated with the committee beforehand. On the question of how the report was presented, criticism thus came from both sides of the aisle.
Investigation timeline and open questions
Asked by KMT lawmaker Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) when the investigation report would be ready, Li said it 'should not take a full year.' Chen replied that resigning does not erase responsibility and that sitting on the matter does not close it, the United Daily News reported.
Two points remain open: when and to what extent the council will release the overseas-trip budget details it offered, and when its task force will report. We could not confirm a specific submission deadline and will follow up as new materials emerge.