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Pan-greens target `double-dippers'

Nearly 100 pan-green lawmakers yesterday signed a petition to request the government tackle the problem of retired civil servants "double-dipping" by working at government-funded organizations while drawing a pension.

The signature drive was initiated by Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Cheng Kuo-chung (鄭國忠) and Winston Dang (陳重信).

As of yesterday, 96 lawmakers have signed the petition.

The organizers said they will present the petition to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Cheng yesterday asked the government to stop paying "double-dippers" their pensions if their monthly salaries at the institution exceed NT$31,200, in accordance with the law.

LEGAL LIMIT

The implementation regulations of the Civil Servant Retirement Law (公務人員退休法施行細則) stipulate that the monthly salary for retired civil servants employed by a government-funded organization cannot exceed NT$31,200.

If it does, the government must cancel their retirement benefits, including pensions or preferential interest rates for their savings.

Cheng also asked the government to make public the names of "double-dipppers" within a week or face a 30 percent cut of the budget earmarked for the organizations' funding for next year.

Cheng also asked the government to map out measures to more effectively manage government-funded organizations by the end of the year and send them to the legislature for review.

Cheng said the government should apply the same standards to those organizations whose government funding is less than 50 percent of their income as it does to those who get more funding.

According to Cheng, there are 143 government-funded organizations, 100 of which get more than 50 percent of their funding from the government.

SOME BIG NAMES

Lai said there were at least four former senior officials who are getting pensions in addition to receiving salaries from government-funded organizations.

She said former premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) gets paid by two different government-funded organizations and also receives a government pension.

Liu Ting-ying (劉廷英), former director of the Bureau of Food Sanitation under the Department of Health, has an annual income of about NT$3.28 million.

Chen Hsi-huang (陳希煌), former director of the Council of Agriculture, has an annual income of about NT$2.39 million.

Lai asked the government to investigate whether there are more double-dippers and make public the names.

LAWMAKER'S THREAT

If the government fails to comply, Lai threatened to try slash all government funding earmarked for government-financed associations by the end of the year.

She also called on retired civil servants who have earned more than NT$31,200 a month since January of this year to return the excess amount to state coffers.

TSU caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) called on the government to show its determination to reform by fixing the problem because the money paid to those retired civil servants is the taxpayers' money.
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