The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed an amendment allowing people with dual nationality to be appointed as civil servants, but they would have to give up their other citizenship before taking office.
The amendment to the Civil Service Employment Act (公務人員任用法) allows Taiwanese who have dual citizenship to be employed as civil servants, but the hiring agency and position should not be relevant to national security or state secrets.
The amendment aims to make hiring in the civil service system more flexible, simplify the procedure of organizational adjustment and make recruitment qualifications more reasonable, Minister of Civil Service Chou Chih-hung (周志宏) said.
Photo copied by Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
Article 28 of the original act stipulated that “anyone who holds a Republic of China nationality and nationality of another country cannot be hired as a civil servant.”
The amendment includes a proviso that if a dual citizenship holder cannot renounce their foreign nationality as it is against foreign laws, but has applied to give up their foreign nationality before they are on board, they can be hired as a civil servant after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs verifies the situation.
The amendment was proposed to protect the right to hold public office stipulated in Article 18 of the Constitution, as some countries, including Argentina, prohibit citizens from renouncing their nationality.
It also states that due to business needs or special circumstances, the competent authority can formulate a plan that shares employee quotas among agencies in the same category and of the same level with the approval of the Examination Yuan.
Chou said the current regulation requires every agency to have a recruitment plan that lists all of its position titles, job grades and number of employees.
Some have suggested that agencies and schools with similar functions can share a recruitment plan, with the total number of employees remaining unchanged, to make the most of human resources.
Other amendments include that if a staff on probation is found to be incompetent and supporting evidence is provided, the head of the agency could mark their performance as failed and the staff on probation cannot be transferred to positions in other occupational series.
In addition, the language regarding staff returning from leave without pay was changed from “reinstatement to duty when the reason for suspension ceases to exist” to “return to duty with pay when the reason for suspension ceases to exist.”
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