Civil servants might not enjoy their iron rice bowl for much longer as the Examination Yuan will set up a review system to weed out civil servants with at least two years of subpar performance, Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中) said yesterday.
“Without an elimination system, [the civil service] is just like a pond of stagnant water. I do not want to see this phenomenon continuing,” Kuan said during his address at the government body’s New Year’s press conference yesterday.
Kuan said the Examination Yuan, the government branch responsible for the country’s civil service, will soon revise the existing performance review system for all civil servants, which he said failed to appraise the performance of individuals.
“Over the years, the performance review system has been no more than a formality. Particularly the performance review bonus, which has long been regarded by civil servants as part of their salary,” Kuan said.
Kuan said the Examination Yuan wanted to set up an evaluation system based on the Singaporean model, under which civil servants with poor performance are granted very little in bonuses or denied them altogether.
Civil servants who fail to obtain a performance review bonus for two consecutive years and are denied the bonus for a third year will be laid off, Kuan said.
Meanwhile, Kuan said that English would be included as a test subject in all civil service examinations starting next year, with the exception of the examinations held for disabled people, Aborigines and entry-level jobs for transportation.
“English proficiency is important as you can’t reach out to the world without the ability, not to mention the capability to garner information,” Kuan said.
Minister of Examinations Kirby Yang (楊朝祥) said English was currently included in 80 percent of the nation’s 315 categories of civil service exams.
English proficiency will not be included in the civil servant examinations held for Aborigines until next year, while the weight of English scores on the examinations will be 10 percent lower than that on the examinations held for the general public, Yang said.
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