Kaohsiung Information Bureau Director-General Anne Wang (王淺秋) yesterday resigned, drawing criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Kaohsiung City Council caucus, which said that the timing of her departure was made out of consideration for year-end bonuses.
Wang yesterday morning announced her resignation and said that she would become the campaign office spokeswoman for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate in the Jan. 11 election.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻) later told a news conference that Han should resign as mayor, as his administration team members quitting one after another to aid his campaign has made it evident that they and Han have no intent on continuing to serve the city’s residents.
Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
Citing the Regulations on Civil Servants’ Performance Evaluation for Year-end Bonuses (公務人員年終考績辦法), DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Wen-yi (黃文益) said that civil servants are eligible to apply for year-end bonuses and other performance-based incentives after working into December.
Huang accused Wang of delaying her resignation until this month so she could still apply for year-end bonuses.
Calling Wang “shameless,” DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) said that as of Thursday, Wang had still been asking for more funding for the bureau and “got the money and ran away without doing the job” after the city council approved the bureau’s fiscal 2020 budget plans.
Wang said that the DPP city councilors should “count their blessings,” because were it not for their acrimonious accusations against Han and his team, they would rarely receive national media coverage.
At a question-and-answer session at the city council on Thursday, the DPP city councilors told her she was better off quitting, Wang said, adding that “now that I have quit, they say I am leaving without doing my job.”
She said that she had done her duty, as she tendered her resignation only after seeing that the bureau’s budget had been approved and handing over the bureau to a new director-general.
However, Wang’s resignation also drew criticism from KMT Kaohsiung City Council caucus convener Tseng Chun-chieh (曾俊傑), who said that he only learned about it from the morning news.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was finalized was “very abrupt,” Tseng said.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was s finalized “is very abrupt,” Tseng said.
He added that he found it worrying that Han’s campaign team could not wait one more week — the city council goes on recess on Thursday next week — before calling on city government personnel.
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