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Taipei County, NPA lock horns over promotions

Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei's (周錫瑋) plan to promote 140 police officers has triggered a dispute with the National Police Agency (NPA), which said that promotions do not fall under the county government's jurisdiction.

Chou on Friday announced that he would promote 140 middle-ranking officers, saying the county government had the right to do so after it was upgraded to the status of special municipality on Oct. 1.

He said the promotion would be in accordance with the amendment of the Local Government Act (地方自治法) passed by the legislature in May.

Chou said the promotion was designed to boost morale because police will have to take on additional security responsibilities with the upcoming legislative elections in January and the presidential elections in March.

He said that Lin Kuo-tung (林國棟), acting director of the Taipei County Police Department, would be promoted to director in a few days, and that police chiefs in 15 of the county's districts would soon be promoted.

"It is in my power to make the promotions, and the NPA has no right to interfere," Chou said.

However, the NPA issued a statement disputing Chou's claim, saying that promotions of police officers under local governments must be authorized by the agency.

The agency said that Taipei County's decision had jeopardized the nation's police promotion system and the Ministry of Civil Service would not raise the salaries of promoted officials announced by the Taipei County Government.

The agency said ot would announce its "real" list of promotions of Taipei County police officers later this month.

Tsai Maw-in (蔡茂寅), an associate professor at the National Taiwan University's law department told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) that the dispute arose because the amendment to the Local Government Act was ambiguous on the right of new municipalities to promote police officers.

Tsai said the legislature should further amend the act to resolve the controversy.
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