The Tainan District Court has found a Tainan health inspector guilty of applying for overtime pay while working a part-time job near her office.
The official, surnamed Wang (王), worked at a noodle shop 3km from the government building where she was employed, and during 2018 returned to the office on multiple occasions to clock out after finishing work at the noodle shop, the ruling said.
The court sentenced Wang to one year and 10 months in prison, deferred for three years, for abuse of public office.
Separately, the Public Functionary Disciplinary Sanction Commission demoted Wang and reduced her salary by NT$600 per month.
The matter was anonymously reported to the Agency Against Corruption in August 2018, prosecutors said.
The Tainan Environmental Protection Bureau hired Wang in 2010 and she managed its recycling center in the city’s East District (東區), where she was responsible for collecting and auctioning recycled furniture and other items, and for running public seminars on environmental education, prosecutors said.
Due to the nature of her work, there was no supervisory mechanism to prevent Wang from leaving the center after clocking in, prosecutors said, adding that on her time sheet, she would enter “collecting recycled items” as the reason for overtime.
After the anonymous report, an investigator observed Wang over a 16-day period, and after confirming the behavior proceeded to indict her for corruption — which carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison.
Wang then attempted to return the NT$8,704 in overtime pay she had received, prosecutors said.
Wang asked the judge for a lighter sentence, saying that she had been trying to help the shop owner, who was an old friend who had suddenly become ill and could no longer run the business, prosecutors said.
She also told the judge that she knew her actions were wrong and she was normally a diligent worker, but had gotten off track, they said.
Citing Wang’s past record, her responsibilities in caring for a sick child and the low amount of overtime pay she had illegitimately received, the judge reduced the charges and gave her a lighter sentence, prosecutors said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS