The Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co’s issues show no sign of ending soon, as the company yesterday again failing to elect a president, after all 11 directors appointed by the Taipei City Government and Council of Agriculture boycotted a board of directors meeting.
Only nine out of the 23 directors at the partly government-owned firm attended yesterday’s meeting, failing to meet the legal threshold stipulated in the Company Act (公司法), which states that at least two-thirds of shareholders must be at a board meeting to elect a president.
Consequently, a board of standing directors meeting to review the company’s budget for next year was postponed, as fewer than half — three out of a total of seven — of the standing directors were present.
Photo: CNA
Company general manager Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) lambasted the council, saying that the success of its efforts to nominate a candidate to take over his job were manifest in the no-show.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the council engineered a plan to replace Han by electing city-appointed director Lin Chiu-hui (林秋慧) as the firm’s president and having Lin nominate Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretariat Director Chiang Yu-lin (蔣玉琳) to serve as general manager.
However, the plan failed after the city’s and the council’s representation on the board of standing directors was reduced to just three seats after an election in October.
Han panned a council statement saying that supervisors at the firm are corrupt, and therefore it should hold a shareholders’ meeting to re-elect its supervisors and directors.
The council, as a ministry-level agency with abundant resources, should have assembled an ad hoc investigation team to probe any problems with the firm that DPP Taipei City Councilors have raised over the past month, which included staffing issues and the legitimacy of bonuses paid to employees, Han said.
Instead, the council is reported to have launched an investigation, he said.
“Never have I seen a government agency that has allowed itself to become so malfeasant,” Han said, accusing the council of persecuting his firm.
However, he declined to comment on whether Taipei City Government directors had an issue with the chemistry between him and Ko, who has offered to hire Han as his adviser if he resigns.
City-appointed directors’ failure to attend yesterday’s meeting is an about-face for the city, as Taipei Market Administration Office director Sheu Shyuan-mou (許玄謀) threatened after the October election to pursue Han’s firm with the Agricultural Products Market Transaction Act (農產品市場交易法) if it did not take swift action to elect a new president.
Sheu yesterday asked Han to explain charges made by DPP Taipei City councilors of nepotism and excessive issuance of bonuses.
Han conceded that the company had contravened Agricultural Wholesale Market Management Regulations (農產品批發市場管理辦法) in hiring five employees that are within a three degrees of kinship of company directors Chen Yi-tsung (陳益宗) and Tu Hsiu-ying (涂秀英).
However, he said that the regulation is an insignificant law promulgated 35 years ago that could be outdated and it also contradicted Article 12 of the Constitution, which governs people’s right to work.
The company would decide on whether to dismiss the five employees to allow Tu and Chen to retain their jobs or vice versa, he said.
The firm has requested a constitutional interpretation over the legitimacy of the employments and would take further action after receiving a ruling from the Council of Grand Justices, Han said.
He presented receipts signed by the council to confirm that it had received bonuses the firm issued for council-appointed directors and supervisors on this year’s Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, which totaled NT$900,000.
The money has been deposited in the nation’s coffers, Han said, asking why the council took the money if it believed it to be improperly appropriated.
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