Sun, Sep 09, 2001 page8

• Lu illustrates government's chaos

  • By Lee Ching-hsiung 李慶雄
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  PERHAPS IT IS true that Vice President Annette Lu's ways are not exactly pleasing. Perhaps it is also true that expenditure for internal decorations and furniture at her official residence have some people fuming. But is there any country in the world where the vice president is almost like a homeless person, kicked around by lawmakers, and has to keep moving from house to house? This attests to the chaos that prevails in the Taiwanese establishment.

  In the past, because of defective laws and regulations, many government officials continued to occupy their dormitories and government-allocated residences after retirement -- until the Executive Yuan amended its management guidelines in 1983. The amendments required government employees to clear their residences within three months after leaving their jobs. However, employees who had been allocated to government dormitories and residences before the amendments came into effect were allowed to occupy them until their death.

  For example, Faina Vakhreva (蔣方良), widow of the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), now occupies the Chihai (七海) official residence. She also occupies the Shihlin (士林) official residence, at least nominally.

  But such practices remained rampant even after the new rules came out. Many of those retired officials were the superiors of people currently in office who, due to friendship, find it difficult to press their former superiors.

  But on the other hand, some have suggested that the former residence of the late vice president Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦) and the Shihlin residence be turned into memorial museums. These two issues -- retirees occupying government dormitories and official residences being turned into memorial museums -- ?are the reasons why Taiwan has been unable to establish a consistent policy on such matters.

  Many times the Legislative Yuan has tried -- by attaching resolutions to budget reviews -- to call on the Cabinet to set up standards for managing government dormitories and official residences. Earlier this year, the Executive Yuan drafted a set of standards to regulate the rentals and decoration expenses for official residences. But the DPP government believed -- just as hypocritically as the KMT -- that it was inappropriate to "impose mandatory rules" on the president, vice president and the heads of the five government branches because they were people of "lofty status" who had to meet with foreign guests and had their security needs.

  Meanwhile, the deputy chiefs and secretaries-general of the five government branches were treated on a par with Cabinet ministers -- a maximum 45 pings of house area, a maximum rental equivalent to 25 percent of the highest rental rate in the area, and a maximum NT$30,000 per ping in decoration expenses.

  By not setting mandatory standards for the president, vice president and the heads of the five government branches, the government has actually turned them into targets of political mud-raking. For example, there are uniform standards for the official limousines of the ministers. When the limousine budgets are cut, they are cut in a uniform manner. None of the ministers can be singled out for criticism. However, because no budget ceilings have been set for the limousines of those lofty, highest level officials, they come under attack every time they change limousines.

  To begin with, Lu's official position and her personality has made her a frequent media focus. The lack of evaluation standards makes it even easier to spawn criticism against decoration expenses at her official residence -- and the assertion that she is "living a queen's life."

  Now, after the transition of political power, the government should evict the retirees who still occupy official residences.

  It should also get down to work on the real estate assets in Taipei City left behind by the provincial government -- many of which are independent housing units with their own gates and courtyards -- and allocate them to important officials who still do not have official residences.

  If the government opts to rent houses for the Vice President the heads of the five Yuans, then it should set clear standards so as to prevent senseless quarrels.

  Lee Ching-hsiung is a legislator from the Taiwan Independence Party.

  Translated by Francis Huang
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