Members of the police force constituted the majority of personnel flagged by the Ministry of Civil Service for misconduct last year, primarily for forgery and breaches of the Civil Servants Service Act (公務人員服務法), the ministry said yesterday in a report to the Examination Yuan.
According to the report, a total of 224 individuals in government service were flagged for misconduct last year, with 171 in violation of the Criminal Code, 35 in violation of the Civil Servants Service Act, 12 in violation of the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例) and six in violation of the Judges’ Act (法官法).
Of those public servants, 52 were charged with being a hazard to public safety, 27 with forgery and 23 over breaches of the Civil Servants Service Act, the ministry said.
Of the offenders, 165 were police officers, 46 ordinary public servants, seven were judges or prosecutors, five were medical personnel and one was a traffic director, the ministry said.
Forty-eight police officers were charged with drunk driving and 19 others were charged with illegally releasing prisoners or helping offenders dodge legal charges, the ministry said, adding that most others were in violation of the Civil Servants Service Act.
Most offenders were male — 212 out of the 224 — the ministry said, adding that, in terms of punitive actions, 95 were demoted, 58 were given demerits, 40 were dismissed from their jobs, 19 were suspended and 12 were given warnings.
Further analysis showed that corruption was the primary reason for those dismissed from their jobs; forgery and violating the Civil Servants Service Act was the primary reason for the suspensions; drunk driving led to demotions; and aiding and abetting were the principal drivers of warnings and demerits, the ministry said.
None of the offenders were docked pay for their offenses, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the National Police Agency said that it has stricter standards for its personnel and that it had all offenders face due process of the law, adding that such standards were the primary reason police officers contributed such a high proportion of offenders.
Other administrative or military units might not necessarily pass on offenders to have their cases reviewed by the civil servants’ punishment commission and would not be recorded, the agency said, adding that, while statistics showed police officers took the lead in drunk driving offenses, the data were not an accurate reflection of the true figures.
According to agency statistics, from January to Thursday, there were a total of 33 incidents involving police officers driving under the influence of alcohol, of which 17 were investigated by the police.
The number of police officers driving under the influence of alcohol has neither increased nor decreased, but investigations launched regarding such events have increased by 10 compared with the same period in 2013, the agency said.
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