The Presidential Office yesterday announced that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had approved the resignation of Examination Yuan Secretary-General Lin Shui-chi (林水吉), effective April 1.
Lin tendered his resignation to Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中) last week, citing a stomach ulcer he said made him unfit for the job.
ULCER
He declined to link his resignation to recent controversy over the Examination Yuan’s proposed amendments to the Civil Servants Evaluation Act (公務人員考績法), instead saying he really needed a break and planned to take an overseas trip after standing down.
Revisions proposed by the Minister of Civil Service have drawn criticism from public servants and led to heated discussions between the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan.
The draft bill must first receive the support of the Examination Yuan before it proceeds to the Executive branch and the Legislative Yuan for final approval.
FAILING
At issue is the proposal that a minimum of 3 percent of public servants in a government agency must receive a failing grade.
Currently, the performance of civil servants is evaluated using a four-scale system that goes from A to D.
Those who receive a “C” grade do not get a pay increase or bonus, while those who receive a “D” grade are dismissed.
The proposed amendment requires that at least 3 percent of staff at a government agency be given a “C” grade in the year-end evaluation, and that any employee who receives a “C” rating three times during their career should be dismissed or forced into early retirement.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has expressed support for reforming the system, but opposed the Examination Yuan’s proposal and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) supports the premier.
Ma is firmly behind the initiative to revamp the evaluation system, but said that the measures adopted must be constitutional.
He also suggested that the Examination Yuan hold public hearings to explain the proposal and solicit more support from public servants.
NOT DIFFERING
Ma once again commented on the matter on Sunday, denying that the Executive Yuan and the Examination Yuan had differing opinions on the initiative to revamp the civil servant evaluation system.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) yesterday quoted Ma as saying that he believed “the Examination Yuan will work out something that will secure the backing of both civil servants and the Legislative Yuan.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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