Nepotism is prevalent at three of the Taipei City Government's departments since only those who have connections were hired as summer part-timers there, a city councilor alleged yesterday.
New Party city councilman Lee Hsin (李新) said that the city's Office of Traffic Adjudication (
"Although they're not required by any law to do so, it's a shame that they take advantage of their privileges at the expense of disadvantaged and minority groups," Lee said.
The quota of summer part-timers set by the city's personnel department for the entire city government this year is 180. To take care of the needs of minorities, the city has opened vacancies to indigenous people, individuals who are physically and mentally challenged, low and medium-income individuals, and children of the involuntarily unemployed.
The 194 summer employees at the tax department were reportedly recruited on the recommendations of department chiefs or city councilors. All of the 12 part-timers working at the motor vehicle department are said to be the children of department officials.
The traffic adjudication office, however, recruited its 45 part-timers by open examination. Lee did not explain why he believes the traffic adjudication department engaged in nepotism.
Each employee receives either NT$17,000 for 22 days of work during July, or the sum of NT$30,600 for 45 work days worked during July and August.
Wang Hsuan (王玄), director of the motor vehicle supervision department, said that the department has a legitimate reason for doing the recruitment itself.
"We've always paid attention to the welfare of our employees, and this year is no exception," he said. "Besides, it's more convenient to fill the 12 positions from within since it's only a two-month job."
Chiang Chia-lin (蔣家麟), director of the tax department's personnel office, said the department does its own recruiting because they only need people for a month.
Chiang refused to specify which department chiefs or city councilors had made the recommendations for the department's current group of part-time employees.
Lee requested the city's anti-corruption department conduct an investigation on whether the three units had engaged in any wrongdoing or profited from the matter.
He also requested the city let the personnel department coordinate the summer recruitment instead of letting different departments take care of the matter by themselves.
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