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DPP lawmakers target groups run by double-dippers

A group of DPP lawmakers yesterday slammed the government for wasting tax dollars on civic groups where retired officials draw generous salaries in addition to their retirement benefits.

The legislators vowed to make those organizations the target of reform in order to ensure that public resources are equitably distributed among the people.

"I find it unfair for many retired government officials to enjoy double incomes when many ordinary people cannot even land a job," DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen (湯火聖) said at news conference yesterday morning.

He produced official documents showing that assorted Cabinet departments spend a total of NT$104 billion a year financing 133 civic organizations, 35 of which are fully sponsored by government funds. Another 99 get 50 percent of their annual bud-gets from tax revenues.

Tang questioned the rationale for such organizations, saying many of them serve no purpose other than to allow retired officials to get extra income.

Colleague Chien Chao-tong (簡肇棟) noted that former finance minister Hsu Chia-tung (許嘉棟), for instance, enjoys a monthly salary of more than NT$220,000 as head of a private trade association while collecting nearly NT$50,000 a month in retirement benefits.

Kao Chun-hui (郭俊惠), former general manager of the Taiwan Power Company, who received all of his retirement benefits in one lump payment of NT$6.89 million, gets NT$189,000 a month for chairing a power research institute, Chien said.

The data showed the Council for Cultural Affairs well ahead of other agencies in sponsoring 29 civic organizations. The Ministry of Economic Affairs finances 25 associations, while the Council of Agriculture finances 13.

Lawmaker Lin Yu-sheng (林育生) demanded that the government revamp its personnel policy when staffing those organizations. Lin said he and others would work to abolish those organizations because they have not been effective in serving the public.
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