Lawmakers serving on the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee yesterday froze 50 percent of the budget allocated for the TPE Aviation Security Co (桃園機場保全股份有限公司), an reinvestment of Taoyuan International Airport Co (TIAC), citing the airport company’s broken promise to not pay the head of aviation security firm.
The aviation security firm was created to handle the specific security requirements of an international airport.
When proposing its own aviation security firm, TIAC said that the firm’s president and chairman would not receive compensation. However, lawmakers found that this was not the case.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The aviation security firm is managed by Hu Ching-fu (胡景富), a former chief secretary of the National Immigration Agency who is the company’s president and acting chairman.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) and Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) and Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said that Hu is being paid NT$150,000 per month, which is more than the Aviation Police Bureau chief makes.
Despite TIAC saying that the aviation security firm would not use its budget for public relations expenses, lawmakers also found that the company listed NT$800,000 for such uses in its budget plan.
The legislators said TIAC deceived the committee, and threatened to completely eliminate the budget earmarked for the salaries of the aviation security firm’s president and chairman.
“These reinvestments have been created to give retired officials jobs,” Lo said. “The aviation security firm is simply another way to nurture ‘fat cats.’”
Lo asked if TIAC plans to set up a cleaning company as well, as it now has an aviation security firm.
Lo said the company was created to handle the airport’s security needs, but TIAC still holds a public tender every year in order to employ security guards trained by its own aviation security firm.
The firm’s security guards need 64 hours of training before they are placed on active duty, of which 33 hours are instructional courses, Lee said, which he found “ridiculous.”
In response, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Jian-yu (陳建宇) said the Act on the Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflict of Interest (公職人員利益衝突迴避法) and Administrative Act of State-Owned Enterprises (國營事業管理法) stipulate that the members of the board and supervisory board of a state-run corporation cannot assume the chairmanship or presidency of a firm in which it has reinvested if they are also 10th-grade government employees, which is why TIAC uses recruitment advertisements to find potential employees.
It was not the intention of the company to deceive the committee, Chen said, adding that the group that established the aviation security firm might have been unaware of these regulations.
TIAC plans to change its regulations to allow it to use the security guards trained by its aviation security firm without having to hold a public tender, Chen said.
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