All employees for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung will be hired in an open and transparent manner, the head of the organizing committee promised yesterday after Kaohsiung City councilors across party lines accused her of persistently ignoring employment protocols.
This is not the first time that Olympic track and field bronze medalist Chi Cheng (紀政), the chief executive officer of the Kaohsiung Organizing Committee, has come under fire for seemingly going against the government's recruitment procedures.
Despite admitting that she had violated procedure in the recent hiring of three professionals, Chi said that they were all experts in their respective fields.
The criticism came during a meeting yesterday morning when Chi was giving a report on the progress of preparations for the games.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) City Councilor Lin Kuo-cheng (
Lin said Chi's unwillingness to follow the rules had put an extra burden on the city's auditing department and something had to be done to ensure an open and fair recruitment process.
Chen Hsin-yu (
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) in June ordered that all recruitment had to be transparent, but Chi still approved the three names without ever making their positions available to the public, Chen said.
It is estimated that more than 3,200 athletes from 90 countries will participate in the games. More than 100,000 tourists are expected to visit, in addition to 300 foreign VIPs and 300 media workers from around the world.
The games will cost NT$1.76 billion (US$54 million), the committee has said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS