The Control Yuan yesterday issued a warning to the Ministry of Education (MOE) for failing to monitor its subordinate organizations, in a move targeted mainly at the education minister.
The warning was handed out in response to the ministry's negligence in requesting Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (
According to Article 10 of the latter statute, employees of state-run education facilities are considered public officials, and as such must revoke the citizenship they hold of other countries.
Tzeng violated these regulations while serving at three posts with dual citizenship. Tzeng was dean of the College of Social Science of National Chung Cheng University between Aug. 1992 and 1997, Vice President at National Yang Ming University (YMU) between Aug. 1997 and June 1999 and President of YMU between June 1999 and May this year.
Because Tzeng had been in violation of the regulation for such a long time, the MOE was made to assume legal responsibility for the matter. The ministry was found to have failed to investigate the personal backgrounds of its administrators and employed an unqualified individual to take office at the schools, said Lin Shih-chi (林時機), a member of the Control Yuan.
Having realized Tzeng was serving in violation of the regulation, the MOE reportedly sent several notices to Tzeng, pressing him to revoke his US citizenship.
Tzeng apparently ignored the requests and the MOE did not follow up on the matter or resort to disciplinary action, which it should have done, Lin said.
"Even after the National Law was revised in February of this year to state that only those with approval from their supervisors can hold dual citizenship and serve as president of a national university, Tzeng never applied for approval from his supervisor. The MOE should have come down on Tzeng then," Lin said.
"We reached an agreement to release a warning to the MOE, asking the organization not to commit the same mistake in the future. Otherwise, the education minister will have to be punished in accordance with the law," Control Yuan member Li Shen-yi (李伸一) said.
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