Group picks candidates for Examination Yuan

The qualification-review task force designated by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to present a slate of candidates for the 10th Examination Yuan completed its mission yesterday and presented a list of 36 candidates for Chen's consideration.

The president will nominate 19 members from the list.

Serving as task-force convener, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) stressed that the point of the review was to choose the most qualified people to establish a model civil service. This model system would be free from political interference and allow civil-service performance to be evaluated independently.

"The term of the 10th Examination Yuan, which will begin in September 2002 and end in September 2008, will go through two presidential elections [in 2004 and 2008]," Lu said after the task force's final qualification-review meeting yesterday.

"Therefore, we want to nominate the most appropriate experts to ensure that all civil servants can fulfill their duties without having to worry about campaigning for the ruling party in order to keep their jobs," she said.

Lu held a press conference after yesterday's meeting and introduced members of the review task force, including senior adviser to the pre-sident and former premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), National Policy Adviser to the President Nita Ing (殷琪) and Secretary-General to the President Chen Shih-ming (陳師孟).

Chang is designated to take over the post of president of the Examination Yuan from the current president, Hsu Shui-teh (許水德). As well, former minister of the interior Chang Po-ya (張博雅) will become the new vice president of the Examination Yuan.

"From March 2 to 22, a total of 204 recommended or self-recommended candidates vied to be put on the list. With another 18 current commissioners, who are qualified for the selection, the number totaled 212," Lu said. "We carefully selected 36 outstanding candidates from them in our four meetings."

Among the 36 finalists, four were drawn from the list of current commissioners who are under the age of 65, and 32 from the 204 other candidates.

The 36 candidates boast different backgrounds and areas of expertise: political science (five), law (six), finance and economy (five), culture and education (five), engineering (four), medicine (five), science and technology (three) and agriculture (three). Six female candidates and one Aboriginal candidate were selected.

The Examination Yuan's 19 commissioners are responsible for developing the civil service and its evaluation measures as well as planning the national civil-servants' examination.

According to the Constitution, the commissioners are nominated by the president and the nominations should then be passed by the Legislative Yuan.

Lu stressed that the task force had already sought advice from major political parties during its past meetings and invited those parties to recommend suitable candidates.

"We believe that the Legislative Yuan will support the final nomination list," Lu said.

However, the KMT and the PFP legislative caucuses said they are not satisfied with the number of commissioners designated to opposition parties.

"We heard that President Chen is prepared to nominate only two commissioners from the KMT," said KMT caucus leader Lin Yi-shih (林益世). "We and the PFP think that the adequate quota for opposition parties should be at least eight to nine."