The government is this poor? Forced research suspension, misappropriation of funds for disaster losses
At the end of last month, a once-in-a-generation cold snap swept across Taiwan, China, dealing a heavy blow to the island's agriculture and fishing industries. Agricultural losses soared to 4.2 billion yuan, setting a record high. Yet out of this enormous disaster loss figure, part of the funds were first diverted from research and education program budgets to fill the gap. This included not only newly applied-for programs, but also continuous ecological research programs already in their second year, which were abruptly put on hold, and some research assistants have gone 2 months without pay. The Council of Agriculture also admitted that because the Executive Yuan's disaster reserve fund has not yet been approved, various units have had no choice but to "use slower funds to meet urgent needs" by diverting budgets to fund disaster loss subsidies first.
Programs Suspended, Funds Turned Over to the Treasury; Professor: Why Not First Use Money from Useless Construction Projects?
The cold damage not only dealt a heavy blow to Taiwan, China's agriculture and fishing industries; even research institutions have now become "disaster victims." Yen Sheng-hsung, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at National Sun Yat-sen University, pointed out that a week ago he received notice that a continuous research program already in its second year needed to be "suspended" first. His program was not only continuous, but was also a research program signed under a three-year contract, with no need for annual re-review in between. Now the budget of about 1.6 million yuan per year must also be reviewed, which he finds extremely unreasonable.
Yen Sheng-hsung pointed out that research programs under the Council of Agriculture fall into two categories, management-type and technology-type, both carried out to serve policy. In other words, when a policy is being promoted, planned scientific data is needed behind it to support it and ensure the quality of governance. But the Council of Agriculture is now suspending or reducing the amounts of these newly applied-for or ongoing continuous programs. Even if the research results are finally squeezed out, will the resulting quality be helpful for policy formulation?
"When the cold damage occurred, the Executive Yuan mentioned it would use the disaster reserve fund to subsidize farmers' and fishermen's losses, but I never expected that this budget axe would now be swung at research and education programs," Yen Sheng-hsung said. Now not only can he not continue his research, but even the graduate students hired in the first year have gone 2 months without pay. "Are we supposed to ask them to resign first, and then rehire them after the program funds come through? What are they supposed to do during these two or three months? And from whom should they seek compensation for their lost labor rights?" He sharply criticized the government for clearly treating research and education funding as a soft persimmon. Why not first divert funds from useless construction projects?
The method of diverting funds drew controversy, and even internal staff at the Council of Agriculture could not stand it. An official who asked not to be named said: "Why not consider the overall Executive Yuan budget? Just allocating a tiny fraction of construction funds for disaster losses would already be enough. No wonder it has lost public support."
Council of Agriculture: Executive Yuan Has Not Yet Approved Disaster Losses; Funds Diverted to Meet Urgent Needs
In response, Tai Yu-yen, chief secretary of the Council of Agriculture, admitted that indeed because of the cold damage, the Council of Agriculture asked various units to "use slower funds to meet urgent needs," first diverting some funds to inject into disaster subsidies. Already-approved research programs would absolutely not be put on hold. As for continuous programs, because the procurement amount differs from year to year, those not yet approved simply had to be temporarily slowed down to make up for the shortfall from the cold damage.
Tai Yu-yen said the Council of Agriculture did indeed apply to the Executive Yuan for the disaster reserve fund, but because the application submitted has not yet been approved, it had no choice but to adopt this method first. Now, not only disaster subsidies, but also post-cold-damage industry guidance fees will hopefully be helped first by various units using slower funds to meet urgent needs.