Legislators from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) are calling for amendments to the Act on Property Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法) and the Political Donation Act (政治獻金法) to make the information regulated by both acts more transparent to the public.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and TSU Legislator Huang We-ling (黃文玲) have already recently submitted draft amendments seeking to make information on property declarations more transparent.
Current regulations stipulate that all elected public officials; the ministers and deputy ministers of the five Yuans; public functionaries; executives in the 10th to 14th level pay-grade; the chairman and supervisors of state-owned corporations; presidents and vice-chancellors of public schools, military officers above the rank of colonel; judges and prosecutors; government ethics department personnel and other executives in unique positions must declare their property.
However, the property declarations made the president, vice president, the ministers and deputy ministers of the five Yuans, the mayors of the five special municipalities, county commissioners, legislators and public functionaries are exempt from publication on the Control Yuan Web site.
Control Yuan regulations stipulate that to gain access to the information, individuals need to visit the Control Yuan, and be 20 years or older. People are only allowed 30 minutes to peruse the information, cannot copy, scan, or take pictures of the documents, and can only request to look at the information of an individual once per year.
Legislators were also dissatisfied with regulations set by the Political Donation Act that require only income statements approved by accountants to be published for public perusal on the Internet and not the entire donation list.
To apply for detailed information on donations, an individual must visit the Control Yuan in person, and each application is subject to a NT$20 charge. Re-printing of the data is costs an additional NT$2 per page.
The draft amendment submitted by Huang called for the inclusion of executives in the 10th to 14th level pay-grade, the chairman and supervisors of state-owned corporations, presidents and vice-chancellors of public schools, as well as military officers above the rank of colonel on the list of those who must have their property declarations publicized online.
Chen’s proposal called for the publication of all civil servants’ property declaration information online, including those that are currently exempted. Chen also proposed a draft amendment to the Political Donations Act to publicize all itemized donation data online.
DIPLOMATIC MOVES: Beijing is reportedly pressing the state after reports of forming links with Taiwan, while the ministry is also planning to reopen its office in Guam soon A representative office is set to open in Somaliland at the end of this month, at the earliest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday amid reports that Beijing is sending a diplomatic delegation to the east African country. The ministry on July 1 announced that Taiwan and Somaliland would establish representative offices, following a report by the Somaliland Chronicle Web site. It said at the time that the two nations did not plan to establish formal ties. Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi has instructed close confidants to explore the possibility of “mutual recognition between Taiwan and Somaliland,” the Somaliland Chronicle reported
‘IMMORAL, INSINCERE’: Huang Kun-huei said that Ma was ‘distorting history’ in claiming that Lee Teng-hui laid the foundation for the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ Former Presidential Office secretary-general Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) on Saturday rejected former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) claim that former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had been a proponent of Beijing’s “one China” principle. Lee, who served as president from 1988 to 2000, died in Taipei on Thursday last week. After visiting the Taipei Guest House on Saturday to pay his respects to Lee, Ma posted on Facebook that “28 years ago on this day” Lee hosted a session of the now-defunct National Unification Council, during which he passed a resolution on the “one China” principle. That resolution became the basis of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s
A Belgian man who tested positive for COVID-19 in Taiwan last week is likely to have contracted the disease in Taipei in late June, National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health vice dean Tony Chen (陳秀熙) said yesterday. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday reported that the man, who is in his 20s, came to Taiwan for work on May 3 and tested positive on Wednesday last week as he was about to depart. The man in March reported loss of taste and smell, the center said, adding that he worked in Changhua County, but visited Taipei several times,
NEW ERA: Taiwan, which has controlled its virus outbreak, now faces the challenge of safely resuming economic exchanges with other nations, Chang Shan-chwen said People should not focus entirely on having zero new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Taiwan, but neglect overall control over the disease situation, Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) specialist advisory panel convener Chang Shan-chwen (張上淳) said yesterday. Chang made the remark at a forum in Taipei discussing the steps Taiwan should take in the post-pandemic era, organized by the Chinese-language magazine Global Views Monthly. Chang, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), and Stanford University’s Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention director C. Jason Wang (王智弘) each made a presentation, followed by a panel discussion with Chang, Wang and Buddhist Tzu
RSS