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Title: The National Communications Commission Organization Act CH
Amended Date: 2022-05-04
Category: National Communications Commission(國家通訊傳播委員會)
Article 1
The Executive Yuan, in a bid to enforce the Constitution’s protection of freedom of speech, has specifically launched the National Communications Commission (hereinafter referred to as the NCC) to uphold the philosophy of separating the political parties, government, and military from the mass media, to promote the comprehensive development of communications, to protect the media’s professionalism and independence, to effectively administer communications administration, to ensure a fair and effective competition of the communications market, to safeguard the equity and respect of consumers and minority groups, to promote a balanced development of cultural diversity, and to increase nation’s competitiveness.
Article 2
Effective on the NCC inception date, the competent government agency pertinent communications laws and regulations, including the Telecommunications Act, the Radio and Television Act, the Cable Radio and Television Act, and the Satellite Broadcasting Act, that once had fallen under the purview of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Government’s Information Office, Executive Yuan, and the Directorate General of Telecommunications, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, shall fall under the purview of the NCC. The same also applies to those stipulated by other pertinent laws and regulations that concern the competent responsibilities of the NCC.
Article 3
The NCC is charged with the purview of the following duties:
I. Formulating communications supervisory and internet communications policy, and formulating, drafting, amending, abolishing and implementing laws and regulations pertaining to communications.
II. Managing the supervision of operations of communications enterprises and approving and issuing licenses.
III. Supervising and managing the establishment of communications networks.
IV. Reviewing and inspecting communications systems and equipment.
V. Regulating the rating system for the content of communications and the internet, and other legally designated matters.
VI. Maintaining the order of communications competition.
VII. Presiding over major disputes between communications operators and matters of consumer protection.
VIII. Supervising and handling offshore affairs and international exchanges and cooperation pertaining to communications.
IX. Supervising and managing communications and internet communication enterprise-related funds.
X. Monitoring, investigating, and rulings on communications operations.
XI. Penalizing and disciplining violations of communications-related laws and regulations.
XII. Overseeing other matters pertaining to communications.
Article 4
The NCC is to appoint seven Commissioners, which are of full-time positions and who shall be nominated by the Head of the Executive Yuan (Premier) and appointed at the consent of the Legislative Yuan. Commissioners shall serve a four-year term and may be re-appointed to serve a consecutive term. However, following the first amendment of the act, among the Commissioners appointed for the first time, three are to serve a two-year term. The Head of the Executive Yuan (Premier) shall appoint one Commissioner to serve as Chairperson, and one as Vice Chairperson. .
The NCC Chairperson is of a special appointment and shall represent the Commission on all external affairs; the Vice Chairperson’s position shall commensurate to abridged appointment of position rank fourteen; the remaining Commissioners’ positions shall commensurate to abridged appointment of position rank thirteen.
Commissioners shall possess professional knowledge or practical experience in telecommunications, information, broadcast, law or finance and so forth. The number of Commissioners with affiliation to the same political party may not exceed one-half of the total number of Commissioners.
Effective following the first amendment of the Act, Commissioners, without differentiating terms, shall undergo nominations to appoint renew terms as per procedures stipulated in Paragraph 1, three months prior to the expiry of the said Commissioner's term. The said provision also applies in the event where the Legislative Yuan should disagree with the nominations or the vacancy of the commission seats should fall short of the designated quota.
In the event where the nominations and appointments are inconclusive at the expiry of the incumbents’ term, the term of the said incumbent Commissioners may be extended to one day prior to the new Commissioners taking office, not subject to the restrictions stipulated in Paragraph 1.
The exercise of the consenting right, as stipulated in Paragraph 1, is to take effect on the date when the seventh term of the legislative council members take office at the Legislative Yuan.
Article 5
In the event where the Chairperson should be vacant or indisposed to exercise his or her duties, the Vice Chairperson is to act on behalf of the Chairperson; in the event where both the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson should be vacant or indisposed to exercise their duties, the Head of the Executive Yuan (Premier) shall designate a Commissioner to act on behalf of the Chairperson.
Article 6
In the event where a Commissioner should fall under any one of the following circumstances, the Head of the Executive Yuan (Premier) may dismiss his or her position:
I. A Commissioner is unable to fulfill his or her duties due to contracting illness.
II. A Commissioner is found breaching the law, neglecting his or her duties, or in other act of breaching his or her fiduciary duties.
III. A Commissioner is detained or prosecuted in connection with a case.
Article 7
Commissioners, from three years prior to assuming the position, shall be free of having served in full-time party-affiliated positions, or having participated in civil servant elections, or having served in paid positions or as consultants at a government agency or a state-run enterprise, or having served in paid positions or as consultants as assigned by a government agency or a state-run enterprise. This does not apply to Commissioners that have been appointed as per this Act, or civil servants that have been hired by the Civil Servant Hiring Act or other related laws.
Article 8
The NCC is to exercise its functions independently in accordance with the law.
Commissioners are to perform their duties independently transcending from partisan politics, and throughout their terms, shall stringently abide by the conflict of interest recusal principle, and may not participate in political party activities or serve in government agencies or state enterprise positions or as consultants, and also may not serve in a communications enterprise or organization in a full or part-time capacity.
Commissioners, within three years upon resignation, may not serve as directors, auditors, managers, or as shareholders or consultants of a profit entity which executes the business directly related to his or her duties within five years prior to the resignation date.
Commissioners, within three years upon resignation, may not contact or handle, directly or indirectly, any pertinent business to the agency where a commissioner once worked or an agency a commissioner once belonged to on his or her own behalf or on the behalf of others on matters presenting directly conflict of interest to his or her previous functions within five years prior to the resignation date.
Article 9
All matters under NCC purview, except those that Commission Meeting resolutions delegated to internal units through government hierarchy responsibility, shall be implemented through resolutions voted before a Commission Meeting.
The following items shall be discussed before a Commission Meeting for resolutions, and may not be authorized as cited in the preceding paragraph:
I. Formulating, reviewing, and governing communications supervisory policies and systems.
II. Reviewing and evaluating critical communications plans and proposals.
III. Formulating, reviewing, and governing policies and systems for internet communications.
IV. Reviewing and evaluating critical internet communications plans and proposals.
V. Reviewing and governing the formulation, drafting, amendment and abolition of the communications-related laws and regulations.
VI. Reviewing and governing announcements of the communications industry, concession cases and ruling cases involving the acquisition, modification or cessation of communications enterprise management rights.
VII. Reviewing and governing the organizational chart, meeting rules, and administrative procedures.
VIII. Reviewing and governing a detailed chart of responsibility among internal units.
IX. Reviewing and approving the budgets and final accounts.
X. Other pertinent matters to be determined and ruled by the Commissioners as required by law.
The declaration and filing of the recruitment and dismissal of unit heads other than that of the Human Resources Office, Accounting Office and Civil Service Ethics Office shall be conducted by the Chairperson.
Article 10
The NCC is to convene a Commission Meeting on a weekly basis, and may convene interim meetings when deemed necessary.
At the Commission Meeting , the Chairperson is to act as the meeting chair, and in the event where the Chairperson should be indisposed to attend the meeting, the Vice Chairperson is to act on behalf of the Chairperson; in the event where both the Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson should be indisposed to attend the meeting, a presiding commissioner is to be nominated among the councils to act as the meeting chair.
All resolutions voted before a meeting shall be valid at the consent of over half of the total seats on the Commission Meeting. Each commissioner may present concurring opinions or dissenting opinions on this particular resolution, which are to be announced alongside the meeting resolutions.
The NCC, by obtaining a resolution voted before a Commission Meeting, may convene a subcommittee meeting.
Commissioners, in pursuant to the Commission Meeting resolution, are to supervise pertinent NCC operations as per their respective expertise and NCC responsibilities through professional task-sharing.
When convening a Commission Meeting, the NCC may extend invitations to scholars and experts to attend the meeting, and may also extend invitations to relevant agencies, enterprises or organizations to dispatch representatives to present explanations, present facts, or offer opinions.
The Commission Meeting, when reviewing administrative orders, administrative plans, or administrative dispositions concerning public interests as stipulated under Article 3 or Article 9, shall convene public hearings to commensurate the stipulations governing public hearing procedures set forth under Chapter One, Section 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act.
Article 11
The NCC is to appoint a Secretary General, with the position enlisted as an abridged appointment of position rank twelve.
Article 12
The official titles and member counts of the commission’s various functions are to be promulgated separately by way of compiling an organizational chart.
Article 13
The NCC may, upon consulting with competent police administrative authorities, install a full-time police body, who is to assist in enforcing matters that breach communications laws and regulations.
Article 14
The staffing expenditure required of the Commission shall be allocated as legally stipulated by budgetary procedure; Commissioners may receive remunerations that the Executive Yuan has approved and finalized for investigation and research purposes.
The Commission shall establish a Communications Supervisory Fund(hereinafter referred to as the Supervisory Fund)as per stipulations set forth under Article 4 of the Fundamental Communications Act; its source of funding is as follows:
I. Funding appropriations by the government through budgetary procedure.
II. Five to fifteen percent of the proceeds derived from managing the supervision of communications operations by the government for the legally designated collection of fees from enterprises under NCC purview in the form of concession fees, permit fees, frequency utilization fees, telecommunications number-port utilization fees, review fees, certification fees, review/inspection fees, licensing fees, registration fees, and other regulatory fees. However, this excludes proceeds derived from quota, frequencies, and other fixed quantity or fixed amount of concession licenses the government grants through public auctions or tendering.
III. Interest accrued on the fund.
IV. Other incomes.
Uses of the Supervisory Fund are as follows:
I. Expenditures required for the monitoring of communications operations.
II. Expenditures required for the operation of internet communications.
III. Research and development of supervisory systems pertaining to communications.
IV. Expenditures required for commissioned projects.
V. Training of personnel for monitoring communications.
VI. Promoting international exchanges and cooperation.
VII. Other expenditures.
In the event where the Supervisory Fund cap as stipulated under item II to item IV of Paragraph 2 should fall short of covering the intended usages of the communications supervisory fund, the government shall appropriate funding per the Government Budgetary Procedure to cover the shortfall.
Article 15
Prior to the induction of the act, existing working personnel at the Department of Posts and Telecommunications, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Directorate General of Telecommunications, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Department of Radio and Television Affairs, Government’s Information Office, Executive Yuan that have been relocated to the NCC along with the operations, their government service rankings, positions, service seniority, remunerations, retirement pension, severance package, bereavement compensation, and other benefits and working conditions shall be protected.
The foresaid personnel who have been transferred and appointed as per stipulations set forth under Paragraph 1, Article 8 of the Transportation Enterprise Personnel’s Hiring Act shall still fall under the previous transferred appointment stipulations. However, when revamped to other non-transportation agency positions, the transferred appointment shall still be implemented as per stipulations set forth under Paragraph 2, Article 8 of the Transportation Enterprise Personnel’s Hiring Act.
Personnel that are described in the preceding Paragraph 1 whose new position remunerations are lower than that of their previous positions, their base remunerations (the yearly remunerations) are to be dispensed in commensurate to stipulations set forth under Article 11 of the Civil Service Pay Act, and their technical or professional stipends that are lower than their previous dispensed amount are allowed to make up the deficient amounts. The deficient amounts are to be adjusted and reconciled alongside the pay remunerations. Supervisory personnel who have been adjusted as non-supervisory personnel are no longer eligible to dispense the supervisory positional stipends.
Personnel that are described in the preceding Paragraph 1 who are of the retained personnel following the revamp of the Directorate General of Telecommunications on July 1, 1996, and of the equivalent retained who have been transferred between July 1, 1996 and June 30, 1998 from Chung Hwa Telecom Company, Limited to the Directorate General of Telecommunications who have chosen to receive the full supplement of remunerations differential amounts before and after the system revamp but have yet to reconcile the dispensation may still be eligible for implementation of making up the remuneration deficient amounts before and after the system revamp.
Prior to the induction of the act, the retained personnel at the Directorate General of Telecommunications prior to the system revamp as of July 1, 1996, who have not retroactively remitted the principal and interest of the particular time period’s, spanning from July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1996, seniority retirement fund expenditures shall still be allowed to have their employment seniority adopted and calculated prior to the induction of the amended Civil Service Retirement Act on July 1, 1995.
Personnel that are described in the preceding Paragraph 4 who have been business service personnel, teaching assistant (assistant interns) hired per related management laws and regulations voluntarily filed with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications prior to the system revamp of the Directorate General of Communications, the compensation method for the labor years is to commensurate the stipulations set by the Executive Yuan.
Article 16
The promulgation date of the act is to be set per order of the Executive Yuan.