Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday apologized and promised improvements after chaotic scenes outside local government offices on Wednesday as uninsured workers waited in long lines to apply for NT$10,000 grants, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) blasted the Cabinet for not caring about ordinary people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The district offices’ lack of efficiency in handling the grant applications has come under fire, as well as the confusing eligibility rules.
Nationwide, district office employees on Wednesday only approved 12 of the 10,313 applicants, Yang Chin-ching (楊錦青), director-general of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Social Assistance and Social Work told reporters at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Su later told a news conference that the chaos occurred after he did not make his instructions clear enough when he announced the grants on Monday, which led to competition among applicants.
“The government is a cohesive entity. As the leader of the team, I must assume full responsibility for the issue and reflect on my actions,” he said.
The policy was also not properly relayed to front-line civil servants, whose workload spiked due to the applications, he said, expressing his apologies and gratitude to them.
Photo: CNA
The application period is open until June 30, so there is no need to scramble to apply, he said.
Some people blamed the ministry for the debacle, but he hoped that the public would not be too harsh on the ministry, as Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) had diligently led the nation in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and had only a limited staff to promote the bailout policy, Su said.
The grant money is not issued on the spot, he said, adding that applicants with all of the necessary identification documents would receive the payment in three to five days after being approved, while those with only their national identification card would be asked to sign an affidavit declaring that they met all of the requirements.
The affidavit says that if a review of their eligibility finds that they are not qualified, they would need to return the money and face legal penalties, although Su added that the government would be lenient, as application issues might have resulted from a miscalculation or a misunderstanding of the policy.
Asked about the media saying that his daughter, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧), grilling Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) at the Legislative Yuan yesterday was a “princess coming to the king’s rescue,” Su Tseng-chang said that a recording of the question-and-answer session did not show that she “grilled” her, but was simply avidly discussing issues.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) blasted the DPP administration for showing no empathy to people affected by the pandemic and presenting an ineffective disease relief policy.
The KMT had recommended that the government hand out cash to everyone except for rich people, he wrote on Facebook, but instead, the DPP insisted on setting up complicated relief procedures.
Many local officials have complained that the central government has not cooperated with them, which resulted in Wednesday’s chaos, he wrote, calling on the administration to improve communication with local governments.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS