E. AN OUTLINE OF WAR-TIME CONTROLMENT[1]
An official but unpublished statement, this document was presented by the President of the Control Yüan to the author for inclusion in the present work.
According to Article 46, Chapter VIII of the Organic Law of the National Government, the Control Yüan is "the highest supervisory organ of the government, obliged to exercise the power of impeachment and auditing in accordance with law." Since the beginning of our resistance against the Japanese invasion, the powers of control have been gradually strengthened so as to meet the demands of this critical time. A static control has developed into a dynamic one; that is, more emphasis is laid upon prevention than upon correction. Therefore the duties of the office become heavier and more complicated, as its work becomes more intensified. But the influence which the Yüan has exercised over Chinese politics as a whole becomes also wider and wider. In this report, we are going to describe the activities of the Yüan under the two headings of the Control Yüan and the Ministry of Audit.
THE CONTROL YÜAN:
The function of auditing is performed by the Ministry of Audit, subsidiary to the Yüan. What is directly performed by the Yüan is impeachment. On the authority of the Impeachment Act, any motion of impeachment, after being proposed by some control Committee or control Commissioner, is to be reviewed by three other control Committees. If the bill is passed by the three, the accused must be punished. Whenever a bill is rejected and its proponent does not agree to the rejection, the bill shall be reviewed once more by five other committees whose determination shall be final. Furthermore, emergency relief measures may be requested, according to the urgency of the occasion; and in order to facilitate the performance of its functions, the Yüan is permitted to investigate the documents of other offices as well as to demand explanations from them. The initiation of a motion of impeachment must be based upon one of the three following conditions:
a. Article 2, Impeachment Act: "If any illegal action or negligence of duty of an official be discovered, the Control Yüan itself is permitted to bring an impeachment against him."
b. Article 4, Regulations for the Execution of Government Rights; and Article 11, Act for the Punishment of Officials: "Specified officials may be impeached on demand of the superior who has submitted the case of his guilty subordinate to the Control Yüan."
c. "If an official be accused by the people, the case must be investigated. If the accusation prove to be true, the accused shall be impeached."
Although it is very prudent that the legislators have obliged the impeaching officers to take such steps as investigation, motion, and review, yet in this critical time these complicated measures must be considered too slow to keep pace with the development of affairs.
After the outbreak of war, the Central Government published the "Temporary Regulations for the Execution of War-time Controlment," in which the Control Yüan was charged with the duties of censure and proposition, besides what have already been mentioned. By censure it is meant that when emergency measures must be taken against an official whose illegal action or negligence of duty has been discovered, a written notice of censure may be submitted to the officer who directly controls, or is immediately superior to, the official in question. The officer receiving the notice must decide in as short a time as possible to deal with the censured with the administrative power in his hands. If he holds the censured innocent, he must reply, giving sufficient reasons. If he takes no measures, or fails to reply, or replies groundlessly, the control Committee making the censure is obliged to change the motion of censure into one of impeachment, and the impeached is liable to a penalty. Hence the principal significance of censure is that it takes emergency measures against the undesirable conduct of officials, so as to meet the demands of the war-time. This also implies further extension of the controlment to the administrative system, in order to quicken efficiency.
As for proposition, this means that when some legally specified obligations of office are administered feebly or inadequately, the Control Yüan may make a proposal or express its views to the office involved or to the office immediately superior. The office which receives the proposal must in as short a time as possible take adequate measures to remedy the situation. The duties of proposition, therefore, can not only correct administrators, but can also improve agencies. They are preventive, capable of requiring strict improvement of governmental activities. Effective anticipatory control may now be exercised over Chinese government agencies. Since being charged with the two new duties of censure and proposition, the Control Yüan has carried them into action with prudence. And the effects are rather remarkable.