KMT lawmakers to propose fat-cutting measures in order to save public funds

A group of KMT lawmakers said yesterday it would come up with a bill to trim the number of high-paying central government jobs to save public funds.

The legislators, including Tsai Cheng-yuan (蔡正元), Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源), Chi Kuo-tung (紀國棟) and Chen Chieh (陳杰), said at a joint news conference held at the Legislative Yuan that a total of 436 central government officials now receive minister-level or higher salaries.

In all, they said, the government has to spend more than NT$1 billion (US$28.57 million) annually on salary payments for those officials.

The amount is even higher if special allowances for them are included, they said.

"Therefore, we plan to propose a bill to pave the way for legal revisions to allow for the cutting of 96 high-paying central government positions," Chi said.

He pointed out that the central government is planning to slash the total number of civil servants from the current 160,000 to below 130,000.

"But we think that the government should not just shed the number of local-level civil servants and should instead first cut the number of high-paying positions to set a model," Chi urged.

Tsai said the size of the central government hierarchy is too large and impractical.

Tsai pointed out that many senior advisers and national policy advisers to the president have operated or owned their own businesses, adding that in his view, those posts should be changed to honorary or unpaid positions.

"It's also unreasonable that the National Security Council has seven ministerial-level advisers in terms of the council's relatively small size," Tsai asserted.

Noting that the US has only nine Supreme Court justices, Tsai said Taiwan does not need 15 grand justices.

"All these bloated organizations should be downsized. We'll propose the cutting of at least 96 high-paying government jobs. The move, if implemented, would save the government an estimated NT$230 million annually," he said.

Meanwhile, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said yesterday that Premier Yu Shyi-kun will discuss a draft bill on government restructuring with the leg-islative caucuses of both the ruling and opposition parties in 10 days.

At the moment, Lee said, there is a public consensus on the need to upgrade government efficiency and trim the number of Cabinet agencies.

As to the KMT lawmakers' proposal to shave the number of high-paying government jobs, Lee said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) himself has mentioned a similar idea.

"Nevertheless, the government must make an overall review of the nation's political system and domestic political stability before pushing such a sweeping reform," Lee said, adding that as of yet, the government has not addressed the topic.