National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday downplayed allegations of a conflict of interest between its president-elect, Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), and a member of the president election committee, after media reports revealed the two are colleagues at Taiwan Mobile Co.
The CommonWealth Magazine Web site on Friday last week reported that, according to a tip-off, Kuan, who is also an independent director of Taiwan Mobile Co, was elected president because of votes he received from three company executives on the committee: Taiwan Mobile Co vice chairman Richard Tsai (蔡明興), Quanta president C.C. Leung (梁次震) and Yuanta Futures president Chou Hsiao-ling (周筱玲). The report led to allegations of a conflict of interest.
However, the votes were anonymous, the committee said in a statement yesterday.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The committee has 21 members, including three representatives from the Ministry of Education, one student representative and 17 members elected through university council meetings, it said.
Tsai did not violate the university’s regulations, since he is not a spouse, first-to-third-degree relative, thesis adviser or student of the candidate, and there is no evidence suggesting he would be biased toward Kuan, the statement said.
The university’s registration form does not require candidates to specify their roles at private companies so it cannot be said that Kuan was trying to hide that from the institution, president election committee spokeswoman Yuan Hsiao-wei (袁孝維) said.
According to the university’s regulations, Kuan would have to resign from his post at for-profit organizations to be eligible for NTU president, she added.
Later yesterday, Kuan issued a brief statement saying that he would resign from all posts he holds at for-profit organizations before taking up the role as NTU president.
The ministry is to review the election process of university presidents as required by law, Department of Personnel head Chen Kun-yuan (陳焜元) said, adding that the ministry would decide whether to approve Kuan’s appointment when it receives the document from the university.
Additional reporting by Wu Po-hsuan and Lin Hsiao-yun
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern