Minister of Civil Service Chang Che-shen (張哲琛) yesterday denied a report that the ministry had suspended a civil service evaluation reform for political reasons, saying that the proposal was still awaiting legislative approval.
“It was a completely misleading story,” Chang said in response to reporters’ questions at the legislature.
This Chinese-language Liberty Times(the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported last week that eight agencies under the Executive Yuan and Examination Yuan conducted their year-end staff evaluations last year based on a trial system that awards grades of “A,” “B,” “C” or “D” and requires that at least 1 percent of employees receive a “C” or worse.
However, the Examination Yuan has not said whether it would use the system again this year, a decision the Liberty Times said was aimed at avoiding losing votes for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the Nov. 27 special municipality mayoral elections.
Chang said the ministry was under no obligation to use the system again this year because the amendment to require that at least 1 percent of civil servants be given a “C” grade or less has not been passed by the legislature.
The lack of a legal basis for the system could make it difficult to implement, Chang said, but he said the ministry was pushing hard for the amendment’s passage.
He confirmed the Examination Yuan would use the “four-grade” system to evaluate its staff but did not say if it would follow the “C” grade requirement.
After the system was tested last year, the Examination Yuan was received many complaints questioning how employees could be given “C” grades under a quota system — and possibly lose their jobs — without a legal basis for the grading system.
The Examination Yuan first proposed a draft amendment to the Civil Servants Evaluation Act (公務人員考績法) in April that required at least 3 percent of an agency’s staff to be given a “C” and that employees who received a “C” three times during their career would be laid off or forced into early retirement.
A legislative committee agreed in May to revise the proposal and change the 3 percent quota to “1 [percent] to 3 percent.”
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