Lawmakers warned yesterday that civil servants who commit wrongdoings could see their pension cut or eliminated if new legislation passes.
Currently, civil servants found to be corrupt, guilty of dereliction of duty or other misconduct can sometimes evade punishment by retiring early or quitting their jobs.
However, once a raft of draft amendments to the current statute governing the discipline of civil servants clears the legislature, they will no longer be able to do so, lawmakers said.
The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee yesterday finalized a first review of the draft package, which includes a “retroactive clause” to legalize the forfeiture of overall retirement pensions or severance pay, or a 10 to 20 percent cut in such payments for erring officials who resign or apply for early retirement to avoid discipline.
The draft “retroactive clause” also stipulates that retiring or departing public servants who failed to carry out their official duties can be slapped with fines ranging from NT$10,000 to NT$1 million (US$317 to US$31,700).
The “retroactive clause,” if passed, will also apply to political appointees, the Judicial Yuan said in a statement served to the legislature.
The Judicial Yuan, which initiated the draft package, said the existing disciplinary sanctions for public functionaries, such as job deprivation, suspension from work, pay cuts, reprimand, demerit and demotion, are not effective enough to deter government workers from malfeasance or dereliction of duty because they can evade penalties by early retirement or resignation.
The draft package also stipulates that military service members should not apply for retirement so long as the Commission on the Disciplinary Sanctions of Public Functionaries is still screening relevant disciplinary cases involving them or the Control Yuan is screening relevant impeachment cases and that they will also be subject to the same regulations.
The package of draft bills further proposes that public servants should not take jobs at other public agencies or state-owned enterprises when they are suspended from their original post and that the period of suspension should not be shorter than six months or longer than three years.
They will also be prohibited from being promoted or transferred to a leading position within two years of returning to work.
Meanwhile, the package proposes a new clause that authorizes discipline of public servants who do anything seriously detrimental to the government's credibility or reputation, even though such moves have not violated any law regarding their official duties.
All new disciplinary proposals included in the package passed the legislative committee's first review, but individual lawmakers remain divided on the duration of retroactive periods for various disciplinary measures, which are subject to consultations between ruling and opposition parties before the package is put up for a second reading at the legislative plenary session.
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