The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday said it would announce within the next few days those responsible for the failure of the computer system at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport earlier this month.
NIA Director-General Hsieh Li-kung (謝立?aid yesterday that the NIA has submitted a demerit list to the Ministry of the Interior, but the ministry has yet to approve it.
“Considering that the Ministry of Interior has been busy with the issuance of shopping vouchers, I believe an announcement will be made soon after the distribution of the vouchers is completed today [Sunday],” Hsieh said.
Hsieh refused to disclose any of the names on the list or the type of disciplinary action they would face, saying it would be up to the Ministry of the Interior to determine who should be punished and to what extent.
Hsieh acknowledged, however, that he was among those who may be held accountable for the mishap.
The NIA chief said on Jan. 10 that the computer crash was mainly caused by problems with a disk array, but pledged that his agency would investigate the matter to determine if management or reporting issues contributed to the failure.
At the time, he said the agency would announce the list of those who should be disciplined over the incident within a week.
The 36-hour computer breakdown between Jan. 3 and Jan. 5 caused not only long lines at immigration counters at the airport, but also a lapse in national security.
The NIA later said five people who were barred from leaving the country for various reasons, such as tax evasion, slipped out of Taiwan, while three people who were on a list to be denied entry got into the country.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its