The Legislative Yuan passed the Statute Governing Retirement Pensions for Government Appointed Officials (政務人員退職撫恤條例) before dawn yesterday.
The new law should resolve the recent argument over appointed officials receiving bloated retirement pensions that are incompatible with their short-term service.
Under the regulations, when political appointees leave their posts, years of service before Dec. 31, 2003, will be calculated according to the old system and years after Jan. 1, 2004, will not be counted when calculating pension payments.
New or existing political appointees whose services end after Jan. 1, 2004, will not be eligible for pension payments.
Instead, they will pay a portion of their monthly salaries into a special account that they can claim when they leave their posts, according to the regulations.
Lawmakers finalized the third reading of the proposed statute after People First Party (PFP) whip Chou Hsi-wei (
Despite the compromise to the passage, the PFP whip spoke of his dissatisfaction with President Chen Shui-bian (
Chou said he had agreed to the legislative consensus to "protect the dignity of political appointees."
The PFP was the only party that had refused to back the legislation, with its pan-blue partner Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) siding with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) party and the pan-green Taiwan Solidarity Union in negotiations on Tuesday afternoon.
The Ministry of Civil Service (銓敘部) drafted the law as a replacement for the original regulations, which expired yesterday.
The proposed change was widely believed to have been a major source of concern for some Control Yuan members regarding their pension interests.
A group of Control Yuan members, whose pensions will be directly affected by the new law, expressed concern on Monday and Tuesday over the stalled reforms.
Chou yesterday said the Control Yuan had surrendered its majesty for money.
Another lawmaker denouncing Control Yuan members was DPP Legislator Lin Cho-shui (
Some Control Yuan members had strived to keep their NT$20 million pension at all costs, Lin said.
He asserted that some Control Yuan members could not bear the proposed new rule as this would lead to a reduction of their pension accumulating from their decades-long seniority as civil servants.
"These people could not bear to receive merely NT$500,000 according to the new law whereas the previous regulation would give them NT$20 million for retirement," Lin said.
He urged that "those members taking money as their priority and threatening to step down from the office because of the lawmaking controversy should leave their post as soon as possible."
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