Legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are calling for amendments to the Act on Property Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法) and the Political Donation Act (政治獻金法) to make the information regulated by both acts more transparent to the public.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and TSU Legislator Huang We-ling (黃文玲) have already recently submitted draft amendments seeking to make information on property declarations more transparent.
Current regulations stipulate that all elected public officials; the ministers and deputy ministers of the five Yuans; public functionaries; executives in the 10th to 14th level pay-grade; the chairman and supervisors of state-owned corporations; presidents and vice-chancellors of public schools, military officers above the rank of colonel; judges and prosecutors; government ethics department personnel and other executives in unique positions must declare their property.
However, the property declarations made the president, vice president, the ministers and deputy ministers of the five Yuans, the mayors of the five special municipalities, county commissioners, legislators and public functionaries are exempt from publication on the Control Yuan Web site.
Control Yuan regulations stipulate that to gain access to the information, individuals need to visit the Control Yuan, and be 20 years or older. People are only allowed 30 minutes to peruse the information, cannot copy, scan, or take pictures of the documents, and can only request to look at the information of an individual once per year.
Legislators were also dissatisfied with regulations set by the Political Donation Act that require only income statements approved by accountants to be published for public perusal on the Internet and not the entire donation list.
To apply for detailed information on donations, an individual must visit the Control Yuan in person, and each application is subject to a NT$20 charge. Re-printing of the data is costs an additional NT$2 per page.
The draft amendment submitted by Huang called for the inclusion of executives in the 10th to 14th level pay-grade, the chairman and supervisors of state-owned corporations, presidents and vice-chancellors of public schools, as well as military officers above the rank of colonel on the list of those who must have their property declarations publicized online.
Chen’s proposal called for the publication of all civil servants’ property declaration information online, including those that are currently exempted. Chen also proposed a draft amendment to the Political Donations Act to publicize all itemized donation data online.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS