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SEF staff budget exceeds MAC’s: report
HOME FOR ‘FAT CATS’? The Straits Exchange Foundation increased its personnel budget even though staff make more than civil servants and it has a vestigial role
By Chen Yen-ting, Lo Tien-pin and Su Yung-yao / Staff reporters
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), which has been left with only ceremonial functions after cross-strait negotiations were institutionalized and transferred to government agencies, is allocating more money for personnel than the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center has found in its latest report.
It called for an examination of the foundation’s functions to avoid government overlaps.
Its report showed that with the cross-strait negotiation mechanism having been established over recent years and the main role in negotiations transferred to the council and other government agencies, the SEF no longer has a substantial role in cross-strait negotiations.
However, the report found that the planned spending for personnel in the foundation’s NT$308 million (US$10.13 million) budget for next year has increased from NT$133.25 million last year and NT$152.61 million this year to NT$153.95 million next year — a 15.54 percent increase and a 0.88 percent increase respectively.
Average personnel spending for the foundation’s 113 workers next year is to be NT$1.362 million per person per year, which beats the NT$1.315 million of the MAC, the agency that supervises the SEF and has planned to allot NT$383.91 million for its 292 workers.
The foundation’s average salary is higher than that of the council, to which the Budget Center advised a re-deliberation.
For instance, SEF Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) is paid a monthly wage as high as NT$247,000, which tops the NT$190,000 for an appointed head at any other ministry or department; the SEF also pays more than NT$100,000 to several of its directors, the report showed.
The center said it is unreasonable that SEF workers, who are not hired via national exams, are paid more than civil servants.
In recent years, the council’s subsidy has come to account for more than 60 percent of the foundation’s annual income, the report found.
The council’s NT$196 million subsidy for the foundation next year, for example, accounts for 67.69 percent of the SEF’s annual income; the SEF’s planned personnel expenditures of NT$153.95 million take up as much as 78.53 percent of such official support.
The center questioned the spending and said that excessive personnel expenditures would crowd out the operation of cross-strait business and be counterproductive.
When reached for comment, SEF spokesperson Ma Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said the SEF plays an important role in developing cross-strait relations, which involve various negotiations and arrangements.
The foundation is still irreplaceable, he said.
source: Taipei Times
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