Task force meeting pans performance of Cabinet members

During the weekly meeting of the president's nine-person policy-making task force (九人小組), members criticized the performance of rank-and-file officers in the Executive Yuan, a presidential office source said yesterday.

Members suggested that many of the government's bureaucrats be asked to resign if they do not properly cooperate with administrative officers, the source said.

The source denied, however, evening news reports yesterday that said the issue was the entire focus of the meeting, and that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had personally brought up the matter.

The task force members reportedly used the recent Third Nuclear Power Plant (核三) accident as an example. They said related rank-and-file officers at Taipower (台電) and the Atomic Energy Council (原能會) should take responsibility for a fire that broke out at the plant on Sunday morning and left two electricity generators out of commission.