National Taiwan University (NTU) president Kuan Chun-ming (管中閔) received about NT$16 million (US$518,925) for illegally working part-time while serving as an Academia Sinica research fellow, NTU professor and minister without portfolio between 2002 and 2015, the Control Yuan said yesterday.
According to NTU regulations, teachers who accept outside jobs without the school’s approval could be fired, suspended, denied a contract renewal or deprived of certain benefits as a punishment, Control Yuan member Wang Yu-ling (王幼玲) told a news conference in Taipei.
The Control Yuan on Jan. 15 voted seven to four to impeach Kuan after an investigation found that he had received NT$50,000 per month for seven years for writing for a column in the Chinese-
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
language Next Magazine while serving as a minister.
Under the Public Functionary Service Act (公務員服務法) and Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例), civil servants and public-school teachers are banned from accepting other jobs unless approved by their agency or school to prevent distractions from their public duties.
While the Judicial Yuan’s Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission has yet to decide whether to impeach Kuan, the Control Yuan yesterday announced more findings from its investigation.
While working as a professor at NTU’s Department of Finance from 2009 to 2017, Kuan took on unapproved part-time work at National Chengchi University (NCCU), National Central University (NCU), National Chi Nan University, the Chen-Yung Foundation, Hong Kong-based Next Digital Ltd’s Taiwan subsidiary, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, the Taiwan Econometric Research Society, the Cross-strait CEO Summit and Cathay Financial Holding Co, Wang said.
Some of the part-time work, such as that for Next Digital and Cathay Financial Holding, continued during his term as minister without portfolio from 2011 to 2015, but remained unreported, she said.
Kuan received an aggregate NT$7 million from Cathay Financial Holding alone, she said.
Although he worked for the company from 2009 to 2012 and from 2015 to 2017, he had only applied for and been granted permission to work there between 2009 and 2010, she said.
“That he did apply for permission on some occasions, but not others showed that he clearly understood it was required by law,” Control Yuan member Tsai Chung-yi (蔡崇義) said.
During his time at Academia Sinica from 2002 to 2008, Kuan also served as a part-time chair professor at NCCU and NCU, and did paid work for the Chen-Yung Foundation without the institute’s approval, Wang said.
In addition, Kuan in 2007 applied for US$357 from Academia Sinica to cover his three-day trip to China’s Xi’an Jiaotong University, even though the university stated in its invitation letter that it would cover all expenses for food and accommodation during that period, she said.
The Control Yuan has asked Academia Sinica to investigate the matter, she said, adding that it would ask the Ministry of Education to ensure that NTU handles Kuan’s illegal part-time work during his time as professor according to its regulations.
“As university president, Mr Kuan must handle the problems he caused when he was a professor,” she added.
“We are not targeting any individuals,” Tsai said. “Perhaps other people have done the same thing, but high-ranking government officials in particular are expected to obey the law. There would have been no problems if he had followed the law.”
NTU yesterday issued a brief statement saying it would handle the matter according to its regulations.
It added that it is in the process of setting down regulations governing the percentage of income its teachers should share with the university from their approved outside work.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
SELF-RELIANCE: Taiwan would struggle to receive aid in the event of an invasion, so it must prepare to ‘hold its own’ for the first 70 days of a war, a defense expert said Taiwan should strengthen infrastructure, stock up on reserves and step up efforts to encourage Taiwanese to fight against an enemy, legislators and experts said on Tuesday last week. The comments sought to summarize what the nation should learn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has exceeded 300 days, since Feb. 24 last year. Institute of National Defense and Security Research fellow Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲) said that the war in Ukraine highlighted the importance of being ready for war. Taiwan’s development of an “asymmetrical warfare” doctrine and extending mandatory conscription to one year is a good start to preparation of defense against a
The Tourism Bureau plans to offer incentives to attract international tourists as the nation plans to gradually lift all travel restrictions to contain COVID-19, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday. The incentives would be funded by surplus national tax revenue from last year, Wang said. The funding could be appropriated after the legislature passes draft special statutes governing the use of the surplus tax revenue in the upcoming legislative session, he said. Of the NT$450 billion (US$14.97 billion) in surplus tax revenue, the government plans to spend NT$100 billion on seven categories of projects to bolster Taiwan’s