An act to recover wrongfully paid government pensions was yesterday passed into law after a 10-year push, with former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) and prominent members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to be asked to return some benefits.
The legislature approved the Act on the Settlement of the Combination of Years of Service in Public Sector and Political Organizations (公職人員年資併社團專職人員年資計發退離給與處理條例), which when promulgated requires people paid a pension for the time they spent working for the KMT and non-governmental organizations to return the excess payments within one year.
The act is expected to affect 381 former ministers, government officials and teachers, including Lien, former KMT vice chairman Jason Hu (胡志強) and former Examination Yuan president John Kuan (關中).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Kuan has been overpaid about NT$10.11 million (US$335,301) and is obliged to pay it back, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said.
Lien has been overpaid about NT$9.83 million; Hu has received NT$8.65 million; former Straits Exchange Foundation vice chairman Chiao Jen-ho (焦仁和) has received NT$3.73 million; former KMT vice chairman Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) has received NT$1.09 million; former Judicial Yuan president Shih Chi-yang (施啟揚) has received NT$665,640; and former KMT chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) has received NT$171,360, the DPP said.
Their retirement benefits are to be adjusted by deducting the number of years they worked for the KMT or other political organizations from the number of years they worked in the public sector.
The Ministry of Civil Service is to announce the exact amount each person owes the state.
However, the act stipulates a pension floor of NT$25,000 per month to ensure basic living expenses for retirees. Those whose monthly pension is below the floor after adjustments will receive NT$25,000 per month.
The 381 retirees combined their political party and public sector service to qualify for government pensions because, in 1971, the Examination Yuan approved a regulation to allow KMT officials who held public office to combine years served as a civil servant with years worked as a party official.
A similar regulation was enacted for officials of the World League for Freedom and Democracy, the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, the National Development and Research Institute, the China Youth Corps, the Chinese Association for Relief and Ensuing Services and the Grand Alliance for China’s Reunification under the Three Principles of the People.
The regulations were abolished in 1987 and 2006 after government investigations determined that they violated the principle of equality.
However, KMT and party officials who had assumed government positions before the regulations were scrapped were still allowed to combine their years of service.
An investigation into the regulation was launched in 2005 during the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), and the DPP put forward a draft bill in 2007 to eliminate the practice, but the bill failed to pass the KMT-dominated legislature.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS