Lawmakers across party lines yesterday questioned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MOFA) practice of covering the expenses of 13 legislative aides during an inspection trip to the US.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) told a press conference that the legislature seldom slashed the ministry’s budget requests because of the nation’s diplomatic difficulties.
However, MOFA should spend its budget on what really matters instead of paying for legislative aides’ tours abroad, he said.
At a separate setting, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said the 13 aides should all be required to file a report when they return to Taiwan.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported yesterday that the ministry had been arranging “free” inspection trips for aides working for the Foreign and National Defense Committee during legislative recesses since the fall session in 2008.
Thirteen legislative assistants recently left for the US and Canada on a 10-day inspection trip on how Taiwanese nationals should seek help during emergencies abroad, the report said.
The ministry spent NT$1.5 million (US$46,670) of its budget earmarked for enhancing communications to fully subsidize the tour, the report said.
Tsui Ching-lin (崔靜麟), MOFA’s chief liaison officer with the legislature, confirmed the story but defended the subsidy, saying the practice dates back to when Lee Tung-hui (李登輝) was president.
MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said the ministry took the initiative to arrange the trip to let legislative aides obtain first-hand experience on how US and Canadian immigration and customs officials conduct inspections and how the ministry could help Taiwanese citizens if they encountered problems abroad.
The group will have a chance to talk to customs and immigration authorities as well as aviation police officers in airports in New York, Los Angeles and Vancouver to better understand customs procedures, Chen said.
Chen said the group was instructed to fly economy class and to share rooms in non five-star hotels, implying that the ministry did not squander any money.
During the second session of the current legislative term, the ministry also arranged for legislative assistants to visit the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia to learn how these governments issue visas for their citizens who plan to work in Taiwan, he said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS