Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday brushed off concerns over city appointments to the board of EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co.
The Taipei City Government owns a controlling interest in EasyCard Investment and Holdings, which in turn manages EasyCard Corp and related enterprises. EasyCard smartcards issued by the corporation are used to pay for public transport services and small purchases at numerous retailers in Taipei and other cities.
Ko’s appointment of Tai Chi-chuan (戴季全) — a Web entrepreneur and former consultant to Ko’s mayoral campaign — to the board attracted criticism, because Ko had earlier promised to eliminate sinecure “fat cat” positions within city-controlled corporations as rewards to political supporters.
“There is a standard procedure for appointments in the Taipei City Government,” Ko said, adding that several commissioners from related departments had created a long list of candidates that were then put to a vote by the mayor and his Cabinet.
“Even though I am mayor, I practice collective leadership,” Ko said. “When I saw that Kenneth Lin (林向愷) received enough votes to get appointed, I was dissatisfied, but still chose to follow procedure.”
Lin — a retired National Taiwan University economics professor who was also appointed to the corporation’s board — took out a full-page ad criticizing Ko during last year’s mayoral election.
Ko said that it was unreasonable to ban anyone who helped during his campaign from taking a position in the city government, adding that Tai would be held to rigorous performance standards as a board member and would be fired if he failed to measure up. Ko said that there was no guarantee Tai would be elected board chairman, adding that Tai still had to address potential conflicts of interest regarding companies under his control.
Ko said that it was important for Taipei’s mayor to return power to the people, adding that, while he had not voted for Tang Chih-min (湯志民) during the Department of Education commissioners appointment process, he was pleasantly surprised afterwards by Tang’s performance.
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