The Ministry of Education yesterday released draft revisions to a contract template for the procurement of meals by schools from outside vendors to fulfill its policy that all schools use domestic pork and beef in the meals they provide.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28 announced that Taiwan would ease restrictions on imports of US pork containing traces of the animal feed additive ractopamine, as well as beef from cattle aged 30 months or older. The policy is to take effect on Jan. 1.
That same day, the ministry issued a statement saying that schools should give priority to the use of local, quality agricultural products certified by the central competent agricultural authority in the meals that they provide, in accordance with Article 23 of the School Health Act (學校衛生法).
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The statement asked schools at all levels to use quality domestic pork and beef.
It has always been the government’s policy to give priority to the use of local, quality agricultural products for ingredients in meals provided by schools, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
To assist local governments and schools in carrying out the policy of using domestic pork and beef, the ministry is revising the procurement contract template so that schools can more effectively regulate vendors, it said.
According to Article 23-3 of the act, schools that purchase meals from outside vendors should use a procurement contract template prepared by the ministry as a reference for the contracts they sign with suppliers and submit the contracts to the competent authority for reference.
The ministry’s proposed revisions to the template requires the use of meat and its processed products, as well as eggs, that are domestically produced.
Vendors found to have falsely supplied products would face a penalty of 15 to 20 points, up from the current 10 points, according to the draft revisions.
Vendors that accumulate 20 penalty points would have their contracts terminated, the ministry said.
The ministry is to publish the revised contract template at the end of this month, it said, adding that it hopes it can be applied from Jan. 1.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday criticized the the ministry’s plan, proposing instead that amendments be made to the act.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun and CNA
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS