A small part of the Atomic Energy Council’s (AEC) budget yesterday was frozen by the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee after an investigation was launched over alleged harassment and bullying of council workers by AEC Minister Hsieh Shou-shing (謝曉星).
The committee froze NT$10 million (US$326,990) in administrative funding, as well as Hsieh’s special allowance of NT$477,000.
The committee reached the decision during a review of the council’s budget for the next fiscal year.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The council is not allowed to access the funds until it submits a written report to the Legislative Yuan and briefs the committee on how it has handled complaints of sexual harassment filed by council employees, a process that must wait until the next legislative session in February.
AEC Deputy Minister Chang Ching-wen (張靜文) attended the committee meeting.
Hsieh is on leave until the investigation is completed.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wan Mei-ling (萬美玲) said the council every year budgets funding for its gender equality committee, which is in charge of employee training.
However, the Hsieh situation shows that the council has failed to thoroughly enforce the government’s gender policies, Wan said.
“The budget for the council minister’s special allowance should be completely eliminated,” she said.
New Power Party Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) said that Hsieh did not voluntarily recuse himself from the internal investigation.
In addition to Hsieh’s allowance, some administrative funding should be frozen to push the council to change its gender equality policy, Wang said.
“All AEC employees should work hard to achieve gender equality in the workplace,” she said. “The frozen funds are only about one-35th of the council’s total administrative funding and would not disrupt its operations.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ho Hsin-chun (林欣純) said that the government would have no grounds to ask the private sector to adhere to gender equality policies if it has trouble setting an example itself.
DPP Legislator Lai Pin-yu (賴品妤) said that the council has failed the Executive Yuan’s gender equality evaluation annually since 2015, adding that more administrative funding should be frozen to prompt a comprehensive change to its handling of gender equality issues.
AEC Personnel Office Director Lin Ching-wen (林靜玟) told lawmakers that the council’s system of accepting sexual harassment complaints has loopholes.
“We are revising our guidelines for handling sexual harassment complaints and will retain external experts to examine them,” Lin said. “All high-ranking officials within the council will be obligated to undergo training next year.”
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS