Outgoing Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) yesterday said in his farewell speech at a handover ceremony yesterday that the unreliable new household registration system resulted from the ministry’s negligence.
“There were many factors that contributed to the system’s flaws, including [the ministry’s] failures to properly oversee the planning and bidding process for the project, coordinate with the contractor and thoroughly test the system,” Lee said before handing over the ministry’s official seal to his successor, Chen Wei-jen (陳威仁).
“This is the truth and I, on behalf of the ministry, take full responsibility for the matter,” Lee said, with a bow.
The ministry drew up plans to build the new system in 2007, with public biddings for the project being held under then-minister of the interior Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) tenure.
Jiang left the post in February 2012 when he was promoted to replace then-vice premier Sean Chen (陳?).
The system experienced malfunctions almost immediately after it was put into operation on Feb. 5 this year, causing many to have to wait hours for simple tasks such as applying for new ID cards.
Department of Household Registration Director Hsieh Ai-ling (謝愛齡) later stepped down to take responsibility for the chaos caused by the new system, though many believe she was a scapegoat.
Chen Wei-jen said that while the new job had put a lot of pressure on him, he would take to heart the principle of sustainable development and re-evaluate the ministry’s major policies with a “customer-oriented” mindset.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching