The Control Yuan has censured the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Maritime and Port Bureau, citing the bureau for dereliction of duty leading to more than 2,600 abnormal licensing incidents by the Central Maritime Affairs Center.
According to a report by Control Yuan members Lin Kuo-ming (林國明), Wang Li-chen (王麗珍) and Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) released on Tuesday, the center’s maritime transport technical personnel management system provided users unrestricted access and lacked management, overriding paper approval and allowing individuals to conduct illegal activities.
The system lacks a mutual check and cross-analysis mechanism, which has allowed center personnel to abuse their positions and create more than 2,600 allegedly illegal permits for yachts or other powered vessels, the report said, adding that the problem has greatly undermined government integrity.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The Regulations to Manage Skippers of Yachts and Power-driven Small Ships (遊艇或動力小船駕駛執照之異動登記及換、補發作業) have been treated as mere guidelines, and the center’s receipt, approval, issue and re-issue of licenses and permits for these seagoing vessels are not properly documented, the report said.
There are no measures for cross-validation, nor measures to regulate the use of official seals, leading to blatant abuse of the center’s authority to issue licenses, it added.
The center, founded in 2012, is tasked with retaining administrative files for 10 years to facilitate the hand-off of affairs in the event of organizational reshuffling, the report said.
However, the center’s staff has destroyed files on license registration and issuing for more than 1,000 vehicles, which contravenes the Archives Act (檔案法), it said.
The bureau, as the center’s direct supervisor, is censured, as it has failed to establish a proper standard handling these matters, and has not acted to oversee affairs, the report said.
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