Subject： Inquiry of your Secretary-General regarding the starting date for calculation of Statutes of limitations for audits of property declarations by public servants. Please take note of the explanations provided below.

Description：

1.     Reply to Official Letter No. 1031833696 issued by your Secretary-General of Control Yuan on October 15, 2014

2.     Due to the fact that there are no clearly formulated provisions regarding the starting date for calculation of Statutes of limitations in the Act on Property-Declaration by Public Servants, the limitation periods shall be applicable pursuant to Article 1 of the Administrative Penalty Act, and Paragraph 2, Article 27 of the same Act

3.     The starting date for calculation of statute of limitation periods for administrative penalties shall be determined based on whether the act in breach of duties as defined in administrative law committed by the actor is characterized by a continuation of act or status. Continuous acts shall refer to actus reus that violates duties as defined by administrative law once during the time the act continues. Where the act continues and no major changes occur during the time the act continues, statute of limitation periods shall be calculated starting from the time the act ends. Continuation of status shall refer to continuation of actual effects after actus reus. The statute of limitation shall be calculated starting from completion of the act. Continuous acts and situational acts are both characterized by continued existence of the results of the violation, but the realization of the actus reus of the former is related to continuation of the act by the actor, while the actus reus of the latter has already ended but the actual result of the violation still exists. The interpretation in Official Letters No. 1000015327 and 1000028225 issued by this Ministry on September 5, 2011 and February 2, 2012 may be cited as reference. (http://www.airitilibrary.com/Publication/alDetailedMesh?docid=U0001-1502201714381400)

4.     Paragraph 1, Article 2 of the Regulations Governing Examination and Browsing of Materials of Property-Declaration by Public Servants stipulates that: “When making property declarations, public servant(s) or election candidate(s) (hereinafter referred to as the " Declarants shall fill in the property declaration form (hereinafter referred to as the "Declaration Form") as required and submit it to the competent property declaration agency (institution) after affixing signature or seal thereto.” The first section of the third paragraph of the same Article stipulates that, “The agency (institution) in charge of processing of declarations shall issue a receipt certificate to the declarant specifying the processing date.” Upon processing of the declaration form by the responsible agency (institution), the act of declaration by the declarant shall be considered completed. Where false declarations are made deliberately, the corpus delicti for the breach of administrative duty is already constituted, but the result of the violation continues to persist. This conforms to the aforementioned definition of situational acts. The statute of limitation periods for the right to impose penalties shall therefore calculated starting from the date of delivery of the declaration form by the declerant to the responsible agency (institution).