The government has no plan to scrap Citizen’s Travel Cards, the Executive Yuan said yesterday in response to a petition to cancel civil servants’ travel allowance, endorsed by Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen (張景森).
The card was designed to encourage civil servants to travel domestically during holidays, with each given NT$16,000 (US$495) annually, but they can use the card for non-travel expenses.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday last week approved a tourism stimulus program that requires public servants to spend half the card’s allowance on domestic group tours, with Chang saying on Facebook that the measure could return the card to its original purpose.
However, the move has prompted a backlash from public servants, who say the travel allowance is a form of overtime pay that was created by the underfinanced government, and that an online campaign was launched to petition the government to scrap the travel cards and reinstate overtime pay.
Following the backlash, Chang wrote a post supporting the petition, saying the abolition of the travel card could save the government up to NT$8 billion annually and free public servants from the restrictions of the travel card system.
The campaign gained traction with Chang’s off-the-cuff comments and collected 6,898 signatures online as of press time last night — exceeding the 5,000-signature threshold required for launching a petition on the National Development Council’s online petition platform — and relevant government agencies are obliged to respond to the petition within two months.
However, Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that the Cabinet has no plans to scrap the travel cards and no discussion has been held over the issue.
Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said the Executive Yuan, amid public complaints, is considering relaxing the restrictions on the travel card system, particularly to cancel the compulsory participation in group tours, Hsu said, adding that the new measures are expected by March next year.
Separately yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) told a news conference in Taipei that he wondered whether Chang’s remarks represented himself only or for the Executive Yuan, saying Chang was speaking thoughtlessly.
Hung said Chang’s behavior was not an isolated incident, and that the Cabinet cannot get rid of him which explains why the public does not trust the government.
Committee deputy director Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said Chang was “clueless” when he said that abolishing the travel card system could save the government NT$8 billion, as the system was initiated by former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration to ease the financial burden of paying bonuses for days off that were not taken, a measure that was later replaced by the travel card system.
Tang added that Chang’s remarks, which were made only hours after the premier’s announcement of a relaxation on the restrictions imposed on the card, was “a fart in the premier’s face” and called for Chang’s resignation.
Additional reporting by Alison Hsiao and CNA
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