The Special Act for Expanding Investment in Public Works to Revitalize the Economy


 * Article 1
 * This Act is laid down in accordance with the provisions of Article 83 of the Budget Act for the purpose of revitalizing the economy, effectively expanding domestic demand, accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the national economic structure, balancing regional development, establishing distinctive features in regional economies, and boosting private investment, so as to uplift and stabilize the economy, promote employment, and enhance the production environment and the quality of the cultural and living environments.
 * Matters not covered by the provisions of this Act shall be governed by the provisions of other related laws.


 * Article 2
 * The central competent authority for this Act is the Council for Economic Planning and Development; the central implementing agencies are the ministries and commissions appropriating the budget, and the local implementing agencies are special municipality and county (city) governments.
 * The implementation of public works in areas of indigenous peoples, apart from being implemented by the central competent authority for indigenous peoples, may also be mandated for undertaking by other agencies when necessary.


 * Article 3
 * The central competent authority is responsible for the overall planning and review of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works; the central implementing agencies are responsible for the formulation, budget appropriation and implementation of specific projects; local implementing agencies shall allocate budgets for the Project in accordance with the budget procedure, for expenditure after approval by the relevant special municipality or county (city) council.
 * In rationally allocating expenditure, the central implementing agencies shall give due weight and consideration to the unemployment situation in counties and cities and the gap between the north and the south.


 * Article 4
 * The Project to Expand Investment in Public Works as referred to in this Act means physical public construction projects carried out by the government or private participation in public works conducted under other laws; its items of investment shall comply with one of the following criteria:
 * 1.Necessary for accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the national economic structure.
 * 2.Able to optimize economic benefit and/or enhance national competitiveness, and having pressing urgency.
 * 3.Having conspicuous benefit in increasing employment opportunities.
 * 4.Able to improve the production environment.
 * 5.Able to raise the quality of the cultural and living environment.
 * In the case of physical public construction projects carried out by the government as referred to above, the total current account expenditure shall not exceed one half of the capital account expenditure.
 * In conducting the special budget proposal under this Act, the central government shall prioritize the appropriation of project expenditures approved prior to the implementation of this Act.


 * Article 5
 * The ceiling on expenditure under this Act is NT$500 billion, to be appropriated in the form of a special budget and conducted yearly in accordance with the methods of general budget compilation and review; its budgeting is not subject to the restriction of not being used as current expenditures as stipulated in Article 23 of the Budget Act, or to the limits on the assumption of the burden of subsidizing local items and expenditures as stipulated in Articles 30 and 37 of the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, or to the limits on the procedure of delegated undertaking and the assumption of burden of expenditure as stipulated in Article 76 of the Local Government Act　.
 * Funding for the expenditure as aforesaid may be raised by government borrowing, and is not subject to the annual cap on debt financing as stipulated in Article 4, Paragraph 5 of the Public Debt Act.
 * To prevent a surge of withdrawal from schooling resulting from rising unemployment, the Ministry of Education may formulate a schooling stabilization program under this Act without application of the provisions of Article 4, Paragraph 2 herein.


 * Article 6
 * In conducting the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works under this Act, the central implementing agencies shall carry out detailed planning of sub-project targets, implementation strategies, resource needs, financial arrangements, operational management, expected benefits, and risk management. They shall also carry out environmental impact assessments (including strategic environmental assessments) as required by law according to the nature of each sub-project, and shall respectively prepare reports containing, inter alia, feasibility study, overall planning, and environmental impact assessment documentation, and cost-benefit analysis for selected and alternative sub-projects, to submit to the Executive Yuan for approval.
 * In respect of the feasibility study and overall planning reports as aforesaid, the central competent authority shall call meetings of related agencies to discuss and review the economic, financial, environmental and technical aspects of the sub-projects. For fiscal year 2009, the feasibility studies may be incorporated into the overall planning reports.


 * Article 7
 * The central implementing agencies shall carry out detailed design of items as approved by the Executive Yuan under the preceding Article, and shall present yearly expenditure needs according to each sub-project schedule, and the central competent authority shall conduct a preliminary review thereof.
 * When reviewing the yearly expenditure applications submitted by the implementing agencies under this Act, the central competent authority shall weigh and consider the importance, maturity, executability, political prioritization, and budget requirement of each sub-project, rigorously examine the allotment of expenditure needs, assign order of priority to the sub-projects, and submit these to the Executive Yuan for overall discussion and approval.
 * The procedure for conducting the preliminary review in Paragraph 1 above shall be stipulated separately by order of the Executive Yuan.


 * Article 8
 * Based on the outcome of the discussion and approval as referred to in the preceding Article, and in accordance with the provisions of Articles 4 and 5 herein, the Executive Yuan shall draw up a proposal for a special yearly budget under this Act, and submit this, together with the documentation and reports specified in Article 6, to the Legislative Yuan for review. When a sub-project implemented under this Act is still included in the special budget proposal in the next year, a report on its implementation performance in the past year shall also be submitted.


 * Article 9
 * All agencies implementing the special budget under this Act shall do so in accordance with the budget implementation procedure; any part of the budget that is not implemented shall be returned to the national treasury as stipulated by the Budget Act, and may not be diverted to other use.
 * If there are any retained or surplus funds left over from the implementation of a yearly special budget under this Act, the central competent authority shall make appropriate reduction when reviewing the special budget proposals for the following year.


 * Article 10
 * To upgrade the level of academic research, foster and recruit high-caliber talent, and accumulate cultural knowledge capital, the central education authority may formulate a special sub-project of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works under this Act, which will not be subject to the provisions of Article 2, Paragraph 2 herein.
 * Special budget expenditure as aforesaid that is not fully implemented within the year for which it is allocated may be retained for continuing use in ensuing years, and will not be subject to the restriction stipulated in Article 9. However, unless otherwise bound by a contractual liability, each year’s expenditure may be retained for no longer than three years.


 * Article 11
 * The implementing agencies conducting sub-projects of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works under this Act shall comply with the relevant provisions of the Government Procurement Act.


 * Article 12
 * The implementation of budgets appropriated under this Act shall be audited by the audit authorities according to law.
 * When the audit authorities review the undertaking of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works by any agency under this Act, if it is found that the implementation has not reached 80 percent of the scheduled progress due to unlawful derogation of duty by a public servant, the head of the implementing agency and related senior officials shall be referred to the Control Yuan for investigation and punishment.


 * Article 13
 * If the implementation of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works under this Act involves the drawing up or changing of an urban plan, alteration may be made by an upper level of government in accordance with the provisions of Article 27, Paragraph 2 of the Urban Planning Act if so necessary.
 * In drawing up or changing an urban plan as aforesaid, the conduct of environmental impact assessment and the undertaking of soil and water conservation as required by law shall be undertaken in accordance with the provisions of Article 27-2 of the Urban Planning Act.


 * Article 14
 * If the implementation of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works under this Act involves the procedure for conversion of non-urban land, the local planning authority at each level of government may, when reviewing an application for land conversion, conduct a review of soil and water conservation and environmental impact assessment jointly with the competent authorities for soil and water conservation and environmental protection.


 * Article 15
 * After the expiration of the term of implementation of this Act, expenditure required for any unfinished part of a sub-project of the Project to Expand Investment in Public Works conducted under this Act shall be processed within the yearly general budget proposal.


 * Article 16
 * During the implementation period of this Act, appropriate growth shall be maintained in the amount of the central government general budget allocated to major public construction projects.


 * Article 17
 * This Act shall come into force on the date of promulgation and expire on December 31, 2012.