An appeal by Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英) against the Ministry of Civil Service’s decision to deny him a monthly pension of NT$60,000 as a former Taiwan Provincial Government employee was denied by the Civil Service Protection and Training Commission on Aug. 2.
The commission made the ruling available online yesterday.
Kuo, who had previously worked for the now-defunct Government Information Office, was dismissed as director of the information division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto in 2009 after making derogatory remarks about ethnic Taiwanese in several articles that he published under a pseudonym, Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽).
These included comments referring to himself as a “high-class Mainlander” and ethnic Taiwanese as taibazi (台巴子, “Taiwanese rednecks”). He also wrote that China should suppress Taiwanese instead of granting them political freedom after it takes Taiwan by force.
In March 2014, Kuo was hired by the provincial government just a few months before reaching retirement age. The move was widely criticized, with many calling it a scheme for Kuo to be entitled to a monthly pension.
The commission said the procedures the provincial government used to employ Kuo were flawed, as documents for his employment were filed late, an error that could not be corrected.
The ministry revoked its original decision on the case to ensure equality of employment, which the commission said was in accordance with the law.
As Kuo’s employment has been revoked, he is no longer to be considered a civil servant when he applied for retirement in 2014, which supports the ministry’s decision to deny Kuo’s application, the commission said.
The provincial government was careless in hiring Kuo, contravening standard procedure, and affecting its human resource management, commission Director-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) said.
The incident also caused the public to doubt the validity and justness of the government’s civil servant hiring system, as it seemed that the government created an ad hoc position for the needs of one individual, Lee said.
Legislators of all affiliations had panned Kuo’s case, saying the incident left a bad taste in the mouth of the public.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that the procedural flaws were evidence of an under-the-table deal.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) said that Kuo filing for retirement four months after returning to work and expecting to receive a NT$60,000 pension violated principle of social justice.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that if the employment procedure was flawed, the civil servants who handled the employment documents should also be investigated.
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