Civil servants' conference begins

STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, Oct 18, 2005, Page 4

Chen Shui-bian, center, participates in the Examination Yuan's conference on the national administrative personnel system yesterday. Joining him are Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen, left and other Yuan members. PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES

In a bid to advance the government's efficiency and revitalize the civil service system, the Examination Yuan held a two-day conference on the national administrative personnel system from yesterday to collect expert opinions. Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) encouraged participants to propose concrete and effective suggestions on three major topics related to the plan for government reform.

About government officials and experts from around the country yesterday attended the conference, held by the Examination Yuan to offer their advice on reforming the current civil service system and the methods of screening public functionaries.

The conference held this year focused on three major topics concerning the reform of government systems -- including finding diverse methods for screening civil servants, building up a flexible system of employing civil servants and activating the channels of appointing public officials, and improving the civil-service training system and cultivating public officials of high quality.

"We will devise examinations to make them become evaluations that will combine the job, the environment and the individual ability. And it is our policy that aims to achieve the appointment and the examination result."

Yao Chia-wen, Examination Yuan president

These three topics were respectively discussed by three ministries of the Examination Yuan yesterday afternoon, including the Ministry of Examination, the Ministry of Civil Service and the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission.

In his opening speech, Yao said that in an effort to accelerate constitutional reform and the project of government reform, the Examination Yuan is dedicated to innovating the civil service system, and has held activities aimed at educating Examination Yuan members about management over the past three years.

Besides, in order to absorb the concept of business management and bring it into the civil service system, Yao said, the ministers and chiefs of the Examination Yuan have visited big enterprises such as IBM Corp, Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團) and the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (中山科學院).

The Examination Yuan also held a series of broadcast programs promoting policies and discussing the issue of selecting officials and a number of forums focusing on minority groups' rights of participating in national examinations, Yao said.

To turn Taiwan into a human-rights oriented nation (人權立國), the Examination Yuan again scrutinized the requests on examinees' qualifications and have loosened restrictions on physical status, age, sexuality and military service, according to Yao.

The Examination Yuan also endeavored to create opportunities for the handicapped and Aborigines to serve as public officials, and tried to make the structure of the government to become a reflection of society.

"We will devise examinations to make them become evaluations that will combine the job, the environment and the individual ability," Yao said. "And it is our policy that aims to achieve the appointment and the examination result."

In order to enhance the depth and profoundness of these three topics, the Examination Yuan has held four conferences with the assistance of the Taipei County, Taichung City, Kaohsiung City and Hualien County governments from June through August. About 800 experts and scholars attended the conferences, and 140 suggestions were replied to and adopted by the Examination Yuan, Yao said.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday also attended the conference to give a speech. Chen praised Yao's effort to launch the "KEO" (knowledge, efficiency and Organization ) learning activity for members of the Examination Yuan, saying it was a good example of enhancing the training of civil servants systematically and coordinating the currently available resources to help them take continuing education.

"Creating more opportunities for public officials for their self-education is a job that the Examination Yuan should perform, because it will widen their horizons and magnify their working efficiency," Chen said.

Meanwhile, Chen reiterated the government's resolve to reform the preferential interest rates of 18 percent for the pensions of retired military personnel, civil servants and teachers, urging members of the Examination Yuan to support this reform and carry it out soon.

"We have to change with the times and the government has to reform the unreasonable parts left by past systems so that society can truly enjoy justice and fairness," Chen said.

Tsai Liang-wen (蔡良文), deputy secretary-general of the Examination Yuan, yesterday said that the two-day conference would mainly focus on the issue of how to revitalize the civil-service system and advance national competitiveness, while three groups would try to find constructive suggestions during the forum held yesterday afternoon.

Examination Yuan members Tsai Shih-yuan (蔡式淵) and Lin Yu-ti (林玉體) led the discussion of the first topic, which was about how to find diversified methods of screening civil servants. Examination Yuan members Hung Te-hsuan (洪德旋) and Bian Yu-yuan (邊裕淵) chaired a discussion on how to build a flexible system of employing civil servants and activating the channels of appointing public officials. Liu Hsing-shan (劉興善) and Kuo Kuang-hsiung (郭光雄) were to preside over the third topic, which was about how to improve the civil service training system and cultivate public officials of high quality.

Tsai that all of the effective suggestions will be announced in the conference held this morning, and the Examination Yuan will seek to revise related laws to carry out the reforms.

Meanwhile, a number of plans that will have an influential impact on the national examinations for selecting public officials will possibly be adopted, according to Huang Ya-pang (黃雅榜), vice minister of the Ministry of Examination.

For example, having certain related work experiences or being equipped with language certificates will become one of the qualifications for participating in the national examinations, Huang said.

In addition to the plan to revise the preferential interest rates of 18 percent for civil servant pensions, Minister of Civil Service Chu Wu-hsien (朱武獻) yesterday said that the ministry had worked out a draft of a law that requires public officials to maintain administrative neutrality, and is now waiting for a review by the Legislative Yuan.

"A law that aims to create an administrative environment that is free from the interference of politics will articulate the civil servants' rights and restrictions on in participating political activities," Chu said.