A plan to mobilize civil servants for a parade against illegal drugs later this month drew criticism after the Ministry of Justice asked other government agencies to provide overtime pay and additional holiday bonuses to staff who attend the event.
The ministry last week announced its “fight against illegal drug use” parade would take place in Taipei on April 23 with a festive theme and called on members of the public to dress up in cosplay outfits in a bid to appeal to young people.
However, ministry officials concerned over the possibility of a low turnout and a lack of a festive atmosphere sent notices to a number of other government agencies to request the mobilization of civil servants to achieve their target of 5,000 attendees to the parade, which is to include a walk from the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building.
The notices drew criticism from officials at other government agencies, as the ministry had set quotas, asking the Ministry of Education to mobilize 1,000 civil servants and the Ministry of Health and Welfare 500, while it would send 600.
The Ministry of Justice also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agriculture, the Mainland Affairs Council and other government agencies to send between 100 and 300 people each.
In the notices, the Ministry of Justice suggested that civil servants be paid overtime for participating in the parade or be given a compensation day.
However, the Ministry of Justice did not list the parade in its budget for this year. It earmarked NT$600,000 (US$18,531) in special funding and asked for NT$1.2 million from the Ministry of Education and other amounts from other ministries toward an estimated total of NT$5.8 million for the whole project.
Government officials said the campaign to fight illegal drug use is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility, not that of other agencies, while others said the use of a festive theme and competitions for best costume would be inappropriate for an event meant to highlight a serious social problem.
“People with serious drug problems will not attend this event and they will not stop using drugs even if they did,” political pundit Wang Shih-chi (王時齊) said.
“The minister should get down to some serious work on this social problem and not organize such frivolous events,” Wang added.
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