Transparency International (TI) will commission a new poll on corruption in Taiwan, an official said yesterday, after the group’s original findings sparked widespread skepticism in the nation.
Transparency International Chinese Taipei (TICT) executive director Kevin Yeh (葉一璋) said the Berlin-based group has agreed to conduct a new poll, although how this will be funded has yet to be determined.
Yeh said TICT is expected to foot most of the bill, but it is discussing the issue with its parent organization in the hope that it will provide some of the funds.
Yeh did not give an estimate of how much a new poll would cost.
TICT is planning to hire an impartial and experienced polling firm to handle the project after discussing issues such as survey methodology and questionnaire structuring with TI, Yeh said.
The non-governmental organization came under fire after its 2013 Global Corruption Barometer report said that 36 percent of people in Taiwan who had used one of eight government services in the past year had paid a bribe.
The report sparked skepticism as the percentage was far higher than the 7 percent and 2 percent figures reported in TI’s 2010 and 2006 reports respectively, the only other times Taiwan was in the survey.
Skepticism was heightened when media found that the firm listed as having conducted the Taiwan survey — Shanghai-based WisdomAsia — denied having done the job.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with