Civil servants who quit their jobs will not be allowed to take a private sector job in their field for three years and people who have left and are already working in the private sector will have three months to quit their job if the legislature gives the legal revisions the go-ahead.
The legislature’s Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday approved the preliminary review of draft amendments to the Civil Servant Services Act (公務員服務法). The draft will proceed to a full-house legislative session without further cross-party negotiations.
As the law stands, a civil servant must wait three years before assuming any managerial position at a profit-making company if it is relevant to the position the official held before leaving the civil service and they occupied their post for more than five years. It is what is called the “revolving door” clause.
The additional clause also stated that those who are already employed will have three months to quit their job after the law takes effect.
The draft, proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, was seen as an attempt to prevent Gary Tseng (曾國烈), former director of the Banking Bureau under the Financial Supervisory Commission, from seeking a position at a financial institution following his retirement in April this year.
While Tseng has asked the commission and the Ministry of Civil Service to explain whether he would violate the “revolving door” clause if he were to do so, KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-shyoung (徐中雄) yesterday said he was amazed by the response from the two agencies, which he described as playing “a ridiculous game of words.”
“We have no other choice but to amend the law,” she said.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰), however, expressed his concern that stricter measures may do more harm than good in recruiting talent for such independent agencies as the Financial Supervisory Commission or the Fair Trade Commission.
Meanwhile, the same committee yesterday approved draft amendments to the Organic Law of Legislative Committees (立法院各委員會組織法) to allow the two conveners of a legislative committee to decide when to hold the election to fill a vacancy.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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