Sat, Jan 20, 2007 page3

• Official to file suit over pension claims

  'QUESTIONABLE PRACTICE' An Examination Yuan member called the practice of combining tenure at NGOs and government posts `illegitimate' and `unconstitutional'

  • By Loa Iok-sin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Examination Yuan member Chang Cheng-shuh (張正修) yesterday said he would file an administrative suit on Monday questioning the legality of allowing public servants to combine their tenure at non-government organizations with those in government when they apply for retirement pensions.

  Chang said that between 1969 and 1971, the Examination Yuan introduced a series of regulations that allowed public servants to combine the years they worked at certain non-government organizations and the years they worked in government in calculating pension payments.

  Those organizations were all either associated with or affiliated to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).

  The Examination Yuan discontinued the practice in 1987.

  However, those who retired before Dec. 3 that year were still entitled to the pension payments.

  Last year the Examination Yuan further ruled that those who had already applied for and received their pensions on that basis would not be required to return the money.

  However, the decision to allow public servants to combine their years of service had never been approved by the Examination Yuan Council, as required by law.

  Instead, the president of the Examination Yuan at the time, Sun Ko (孫科), approved the regulations on his own, Chang said.

  "The purpose of the administrative litigation is to have these rules declared invalid," Chang said. "The introduction of those regulations was illegitimate in the first place ... and unconstitutional."

  Based on the constitutional interpretation of Article No. 5 by the Council of Grand Justices in 1952, "personnel at any political party ... shall not be considered civil servants."

  Chang said that he was filing the suit purely to serve the public interest.

  "I'm fighting for justice through this case," Chang said at a news conference held at the Examination Yuan. "I'm not fighting against any political party."

  Chang is worried that the case might get thrown out on technical grounds.

  "The administrative court may refuse to review the case as my personal interests are not involved," Chang said.

  Administrative litigations normally involve a conflict of interest between two parties. In this case, however, the conflict of interest lies between the Examination Yuan and the applicants for retirement pensions, and not him, Chang said.

  Chang said he would launch a series of public hearings on the case.

  When asked for comments, Chiu Chien-hui (邱建輝), public relations director of the Examination Yuan, said that "Chang wants to emphasize that he's filing the case on his own, not on behalf of the Examination Yuan."

  The Examination Yuan has no comments on the case, Chiu added.

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