Plans to give senior government officials a hefty raise next year were met with stringent opposition from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday, who said that it would cost the nation’s coffers tens of millions of NT dollars.
The bill, first proposed by the Examination Yuan last year, passed its preliminary reading by the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee on Monday. If it becomes law, up to 316 senior government officials would get raises next year.
Included in the draft bill are provisions to increase the salaries of Presidential Office -Secretary-General Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) and National Security Council -Secretary-General Hu Wei-jen (胡為真) to the level currently paid to Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義).
The raise would increase their salaries from NT$180,000 (US$6,025) per month — on a par with government ministers — to about NT$310,000 a month, not including other bonuses and perks given to senior government officials.
Other officials ranking above the deputy minister level, including political consultants retained by the central government, are expected to see their monthly wages increase by between NT$3,440 and NT$38,700 if the bill receives legislative approval.
The move, which is expected to cost the government NT$61.6 million annually, comes as public sector wages have remained largely stagnant for the past six years. In August, the Executive Yuan announced that public sector and military wages would not see an increase next year, despite increasing economic growth.
Speaking against the latest proposal, DPP lawmakers said it wasn’t the right time to introduce the bill and called it a “self--fattening” clause that would likely incite public anger.
Public sector workers, the DPP lawmakers suggested, would also demand a related raise, if the proposal were to pass.
“Is this the right time to be talking about raising salaries?” DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) asked. “With large numbers of people still unemployed … how can [the legislature] pass such a bill?”
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said that with the recent controversy over the botched attempt to pass a health reform bill, the public would think that it was “unacceptable” to discuss hefty increases to government salaries.
“Everybody was concerned about the huge costs associated with the healthcare reform increases, but senior government officials seemingly don’t care when they give themselves a raise,” he said.
In addition, if the bill is passed it is also expected to decrease the salary of top-level municipal officials by NT$1,720 a month because of a revision in the law that changes how some benefits are calculated.
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