Kaohsiung Information Bureau Director-General Anne Wang (王淺秋) yesterday resigned, drawing criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Kaohsiung City Council caucus, which said that the timing of her departure was made out of consideration for year-end bonuses.
Wang yesterday morning announced her resignation and said that she would become the campaign office spokeswoman for Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate in the Jan. 11 election.
DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Lin Chih-hung (林智鴻) later told a news conference that Han should resign as mayor, as his administration team members quitting one after another to aid his campaign has made it evident that they and Han have no intent on continuing to serve the city’s residents.
Photo: Tsai Ching-hua, Taipei Times
Citing the Regulations on Civil Servants’ Performance Evaluation for Year-end Bonuses (公務人員年終考績辦法), DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Wen-yi (黃文益) said that civil servants are eligible to apply for year-end bonuses and other performance-based incentives after working into December.
Huang accused Wang of delaying her resignation until this month so she could still apply for year-end bonuses.
Calling Wang “shameless,” DPP Kaohsiung City Councilor Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) said that as of Thursday, Wang had still been asking for more funding for the bureau and “got the money and ran away without doing the job” after the city council approved the bureau’s fiscal 2020 budget plans.
Wang said that the DPP city councilors should “count their blessings,” because were it not for their acrimonious accusations against Han and his team, they would rarely receive national media coverage.
At a question-and-answer session at the city council on Thursday, the DPP city councilors told her she was better off quitting, Wang said, adding that “now that I have quit, they say I am leaving without doing my job.”
She said that she had done her duty, as she tendered her resignation only after seeing that the bureau’s budget had been approved and handing over the bureau to a new director-general.
However, Wang’s resignation also drew criticism from KMT Kaohsiung City Council caucus convener Tseng Chun-chieh (曾俊傑), who said that he only learned about it from the morning news.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was finalized was “very abrupt,” Tseng said.
The lack of notification was “disrespectful” to the city council and leaving the day after the budget was s finalized “is very abrupt,” Tseng said.
He added that he found it worrying that Han’s campaign team could not wait one more week — the city council goes on recess on Thursday next week — before calling on city government personnel.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS