The Taipei City Government yesterday amended a regulation to require the chairpeople or general managers of companies that the city government has invested in or entrusted to attend the Taipei City Council’s question-and-answer sessions, but it needs to be passed by the council to take effect.
The amendment was endorsed at a municipal administrative meeting hosted by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
If it is passed, Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co (TAPM) general manager Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧) will be required to report to the city council, leading Chinese-language media to label it the “Wu Yin-ning interpellation clause.”
The council has been asking the company to report to it since Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) was TAPM general manager, but Wu has refused to attend the question-and-answer sessions.
The city government can require a company general manager or chairman to report to the council if it holds more than half of the company’s shares, but it only holds a 22.76 percent stake in TAPM, Wu said in June, citing the Self-governing Rules for the Management and Supervision of Taipei City Government Invested Businesses (台北市政府投資事業管理監督自治條例).
Ko has repeatedly said he was disappointed by Wu’s refusal to report to the council.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilors have accused Wu of not respecting the council.
Taipei City Council Speaker Wu Pi-chu (吳碧珠) in July said that although Wu is not required to report to the council, asking city-invested companies to report has been an unspoken rule.
The amendment is to be reviewed by the Taipei City Council in an upcoming provisional session or during its next session, and if it is passed, those who refuse to attend an interpellation session could face a fine, Wu said.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the
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