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Legislature defers Examination Yuan's budget review

"The ministry initiated a review into the civil servants retirement fund in 2002. The reform plan is aimed at making the scheme more reasonable, not for any political gain."

Chu Wu-hsien, Minister of the Civil Service

The legislature's Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday decided to defer the budget review of the Examination Yuan until next month, when it is scheduled to present a detailed report on its reform plan on the controversial 18 percent preferential interest rate enjoyed by civil servants.

Seeking to learn more about the Examination Yuan's reform plan for the contentious program, the committee decided to invite the Examination Yuan and Ministry of Civil Service to deliver reports on the matter on Nov. 3. The committee would then proceed to review their budget requests in the afternoon.

The resolution is a compromise reached during cross-party negotiations to settle differences between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Chin-lin (伍錦霖) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Jao Yung-ching (趙永清).

Wu proposed to freeze the Examination Yuan and Ministry of Civil Service's budget requests for next year. Wu said that the committee should only agree to unfreeze their requests if their reports on the preferential-rate plan make sense and the proposed reform plan is feasible.

Jao, however, dismissed Wu's proposal as "inappropriate." Jao said that although he supports the idea of inviting government agencies concerned to shed some light on the preferential-rate scheme, the committee should not couple the matter with the two agencies' budget requests.

Wu and Jao then engaged in a heated debate over the issue, forcing the committee's chairman, Liu Shen-liang (劉盛良) of the KMT, to conduct inter-party negotiations to resolve the disagreement.

Earlier in the morning, Minister of the Civil Service Chu Wu-hsien (朱武獻) apologized to the public for causing misunderstanding of the ministry's preferential-rate-policy reform plan.

Chu offered the apology in response to a request made by KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆).

However, he emphasized that the reform plan has not yet been finalized and that the ministry is scheduled to discuss the issue on Thursday.

"While I acknowledge the considerable contribution of civil servants, their retirement fund must be made reasonable," he said.

As President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has asked government agencies concerned to re-examine the preferential-rate scheme, the ministry is planning to set a ceiling for retired civil servants' monthly pension plus interest earned under the preferential rate.

If approved, Chu estimated that 70,000 to 100,000 retired civil servants would be affected and that NT$2 billion (US$59,458) to NT$3 billion would be saved each year.

Chu yesterday also dismissed speculation that the preferential-rate scheme would be abolished altogether and that the reform plan is aimed at wooing voters with an eye to the year-end elections.

"The ministry initiated a review into the civil servants retirement fund in 2002," Chu said.

"The reform plan is aimed at making the scheme more reason-able, not for any political gain," he said.

DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) yesterday criticized former vice president Lien Chan (連戰) for amending certain laws shortly before his retirement to make himself the richest retired civil servant.

According to Lin, Lien managed to amend the Statute Governing Retirement Pensions for Administrative Officers (政務人員退職酬勞金給與條例) in June 1999 to include the vice president one year before the end of his term in office.

The amendment caused Lien's monthly pension to jump from NT$170,000 to more than NT$440,000, Lin said.

After losing the presidential poll in 2000, Lin said that the former KMT chairman managed to amend the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents (卸任總統副總統禮遇條例) to apply the legislation also to retired vice presidents.

In May 2001, the legislature passed yet another amendment to the Statute Governing Preferential Treatment to Retired Presidents and Vice Presidents to make it retroactive to Jan. 1, 2001.

The change, Lin said, means that Lien earn about NT$240,000 a month, on top of NT$220,000 interest earned from the preferential interest rate. His total monthly pension comes to about NT$470,000, Lin said.
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