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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 EasyCard chair salaries too high: Ko
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je, center, wears an Aboriginal chieftain’s costume yesterday as he appoints new members to the Taipei City Government Indigenous Peoples Commission. Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government
FAT CATS? Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je approved the appointments of two chairmen for EasyCard Corp and EasyCard Investment, roles previously held by one person
By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
Salaries for the chairs of EasyCard Corp and EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co should be cut, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） said yesterday.
“I feel that a yearly salary of NT$5 million [US$160,000] for a chairman is far too high,” said Ko, adding that the salary was higher than his own.
However, he approved a city selection committee’s decision to appoint separate board chairs to the two firms for the first time.
The two positions were previously held simultaneously by one person.
“In the past, EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co was only responsible for smart cards, but we now have plans to expand the scope of services, so there will be a division of responsibilities,” he said.
He added that discussions with the new chairmen would have to be held before expansion details and salary cuts would be finalized.
EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co owns EasyCard Corp and also holds an 40 percent stake in Uupon Corp, which officially went online yesterday.
While the firm’s personnel originally overlapped, there are now plans to establish separate departments in areas such as planning and legal affairs.
The appointment of two chairmen attracted criticism because of Ko’s promises to get rid of “fat cat” political sinecure positions within the city government.
Tai Chi-chuan （戴季全） — a Web entrepreneur and former consultant to Ko’s mayoral campaign — was elected chairman of the EasyCard Corp board.
Taipei City Councilor William Hsu （徐弘庭） of the Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT）, who was a special assistant to former KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien （連勝文） when Lien was EasyCard Corp chairman, said there was no need for two chairmen.
He said that only EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co requires the “vision” that a board chair would provide, with EasyCard Corp requiring only a chief executive to take care of operations.
He added that EasyCard Investment and Holdings Co was created due to financial regulations after small-cash payment functions were integrated into the EasyCard, requiring certain investments to be placed under the separate company.
Hsu also described the selection committee that made the chairmanship appointments as “opaque,” saying that the process and considerations behind the decision to appoint two chairmen were unclear because the city refused to release committee records.
He added that city documents showed that a special assistant to the board chair of a rival corporation had originally been invited to sit on the city’s selection committee.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
