To meet the goal of downsizing the number of civil servants from 180,000 to 176,000, government employees who opt for early retirement between July and December will receive a maximum of seven months’ salary on top of their pension, a Cabinet official said yesterday.
Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) Deputy Chairman Sung Yu-hsieh (宋餘俠) said the regulations stipulated in the amendment to the Provisional Statute on the Adjustment of the Functions, Businesses, and Organizations of the Executive Yuan (行政院功能業務與組織調整暫行條例) were expected to be approved by the Cabinet late this month.
To meet President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) election platform of restructuring governmental agencies to improve efficiency, the RDEC was close to finalizing an amendment to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) that would help the Executive Yuan’s 37 agencies cut their workforce by by one-third by the end of next year, he said.
Pending deliberation was a plan to merge the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the idea has met with strong opposition from overseas citizens whose population was estimated to be in the millions by the OCAC.
Another unresolved matter was whether to turn the Consumer Protection Commission into a business unit under the Executive Yuan.
Sung said the bill on the preferential retirement measure would be sent to the Cabinet for approval together with an amendment on the government restructuring plan after the two controversies are settled, which is expected around the middle of this month.
Under the proposal, civil servants, except for teachers and employees in public schools and state-owned enterprises, would qualify for the preferential retirement measure under three circumstances: having completed 20 years of civil service, having completed 10 years of service and reached the age of 50, or being a senior official who has reached the highest salary bracket for at least three years.
The Central Personnel Administration has proposed setting a ceiling for the total number of public servants working for the central government — including the five government branches and Presidential Office — at 176,000, down from 180,000, within six years.
The RDEC said it wished to see streamlining as early as 2011, provided the legislature approved the reform proposal by the end of this year.
Civil servants who apply for early retirement in June, or seven months ahead of the scheduled date, would receive seven months’ salary in extra pension. The extra pension given to civil servants who apply for early retirement by December would receive the equivalent of their salary for the remaining number of months in the year.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS