The Control Yuan said yesterday that a case of large-scale credit card forgery in 2000 showed that the finance ministry had neglected its duty to supervise the Financial Information Service Co, of which it is an investor, employees of which leaked information about credit card owners to criminals.
A computer engineer who worked at the Financial Information Service Co was bribed by a group of credit card forgers to provide the personal information held by the company of 24,349 card owners, which resulted in losses totaling NT$200 million, spread among 49 financial institutions.
The Control Yuan said the ministry should take part of the responsibility for the case and asked for improvement of its supervisory capacities.
The Control Yuan yesterday also censured the Department of Health (DOH) for its slack supervision of hospitals, allowing them to use out-of-date flu vaccines, and its violation of current regulations concerning payment for flu preventive injections through the National Health Insurance Bureau.
In its report released yesterday, the Control Yuan said the DOH "failed to regularly check the due date of flu vaccines purchased by its contract hospitals which are usually only valid for one year" with the result that the public might have received invalid flu vaccinations past their shelf life and which therefore would be ineffective.
According to the report, in 2001, there were 840,000 shots of flu vaccine imported by domestic hospitals to provide prophylactic service to the public. However, the DOH failed to abide by its own directions to retrieve unused flu vaccines past their expiry date. Nor did the DOH design a system to regularly send personnel to check whether hospitals were using fresh flu vaccine.
The report also said that the department was reimbursing hospitals which provide flu vaccinations to the public, although according to current regulations, this should be paid for by the recipients of the vaccinations. The vaccinations are only free to old people and children.
The two government agencies have to propose remedial measures to redress their negligence to the Control Yuan within two months.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary