Kaohsiung Information Bureau Director-General Anne Wang (王淺秋) yesterday resigned, drawing criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Kaohsiung City Council caucus, which said that the timing of her departure was made out of consideration for year-end bonuses.
Wang yesterday morning announced her resignation and said that she would become the campaign office spokeswoman for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate in the Jan. 11 election.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻) later told a news conference that Han should resign as mayor, as his administration team members quitting one after another to aid his campaign has made it evident that they and Han have no intent on continuing to serve the city’s residents.
Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
Citing the Regulations on Civil Servants’ Performance Evaluation for Year-end Bonuses (公務人員年終考績辦法), DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Wen-yi (黃文益) said that civil servants are eligible to apply for year-end bonuses and other performance-based incentives after working into December.
Huang accused Wang of delaying her resignation until this month so she could still apply for year-end bonuses.
Calling Wang “shameless,” DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) said that as of Thursday, Wang had still been asking for more funding for the bureau and “got the money and ran away without doing the job” after the city council approved the bureau’s fiscal 2020 budget plans.
Wang said that the DPP city councilors should “count their blessings,” because were it not for their acrimonious accusations against Han and his team, they would rarely receive national media coverage.
At a question-and-answer session at the city council on Thursday, the DPP city councilors told her she was better off quitting, Wang said, adding that “now that I have quit, they say I am leaving without doing my job.”
She said that she had done her duty, as she tendered her resignation only after seeing that the bureau’s budget had been approved and handing over the bureau to a new director-general.
However, Wang’s resignation also drew criticism from KMT Kaohsiung City Council caucus convener Tseng Chun-chieh (曾俊傑), who said that he only learned about it from the morning news.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was finalized was “very abrupt,” Tseng said.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was s finalized “is very abrupt,” Tseng said.
He added that he found it worrying that Han’s campaign team could not wait one more week — the city council goes on recess on Thursday next week — before calling on city government personnel.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
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
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
RSS