The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a bill on whistle-blower protection that awards employees in government agencies and government-run businesses and groups who inform the public of unethical acts.
The bill’s first iteration at a meeting of the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee on Nov. 7 was initially named the draft whistle-blower protection act, but the name came under discussion based on whether it would apply to the public sector, the private sector, or both.
The legislature yesterday voted to adopt an amended Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) version of the bill, which says that the act would only apply to government agencies and state-owned businesses.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The Act Protecting Anti-corruption Informants (公益揭弊者保護法案) says that the Ministry of Justice would have jurisdiction over its implementation and that it should establish a Whistle-blower Protection Committee staffed by seven members and chaired by the Minister of Justice.
The bill defines whistle-blowers as public servants or employees at state-owned corporations who report unethical acts and are willing to go on record as the individual reporting the act.
The bill also defines unethical acts as acts and behavior that would contravene Chapter 4 of the Criminal Code, the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例), sections under the Act on Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflicts of Interest (公職人員利益衝突迴避法) in which the civil servant would be fined, the Judges Act (法官法), the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法), the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法).
The bill defines relevant agencies or individuals to whom whistle-blowers should report unethical acts as the supervisors or heads of government agencies; the supervisor or manager of a state-owned business; businesses, groups and agencies controlled by the government; the judiciary or the police; the competent authorities under which the whistle-blower works; the Control Yuan; or other government ethics departments.
The bill says that retaliatory measures against whistle-blowers — their dismissal, removal from office, denying their rights and benefits in terms of promotions, or reassigning them to jobs or locations that would be detrimental — are banned.
Those retaliating against whistle-blowers would be punished according to the Civil Servants Penal Act (公務員懲戒法) and the Civil Servants Performance Evaluation Act (公務人員考績法), the bill says.
People who are not civil servants leaking the name of a whistle-blower without cause would face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to NT$100,000, it says.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS