《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Taipei officials’ social itineraries to be put online

‘SAYONARA’: Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that all the capital’s politically appointed officials would abide by the new rules or he would make them ‘disappear in an hour’

By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

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The social itineraries of Taipei City Government politically appointed officials are set to go online by the end of the month under new rules passed yesterday.

A Clean Government and Transparency Covenant （廉政透明公約） requiring broad registration of officials’ social interactions was formally passed by a policy meeting yesterday.

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） yesterday said he would say “sayonara, bye bye” to any politically appointed officials who proved unwilling to abide by the covenant.

“Politically appointed officials serve at the full discretion of the mayor,” Ko said. “If you’re unwilling to abide by the rules, I can make you disappear in an hour.”

The rules are meant to fulfill Ko’s campaign promise to increase the transparency of the city government, requiring officials to input an array of information to online databases.

The rules require officials to report the times, location, host and purpose of any event they attend involving people outside of their family, including meals and banquets.

Officials are also required to report whenever they are lobbied or asked favors.

Previously, officials were required to file such reports only when there was a chance of illegality, Taipei Department of Government Ethics Commissioner Liu Ming-wu （劉明武） said.

The new rules build on an existing requirement to present financial reports to the Control Yuan under the Public Functionary Assets Disclosure Act （公職人員財產申報法）, which requires city officials to disclose property and cash holdings to the city government, while also requiring them to explain to the mayor any unusual changes to their assets.

The rules apply to politically appointed officials, such as commissioners and secretaries-general, as well as people appointed to the boards of corporations in which the city government holds a stake.

Ko said he would consider broadening the application of the rules to include non-politically appointed officials after the new rules are implemented on March 25.

An official from the Taipei Department of Legal Affairs said that the implementation of the new rules had been delayed for several months due to privacy concerns among department commissioners. While the covenant states simply that information registered by an official is viewable by the mayor and those he designates, the official said that in principle registered information would be viewable online by the general public.

He added that privacy laws would likely make it difficult to expand the application of the rules.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES