I. Basis

A. During the 2,326th the Executive Yuan Council Meeting, Premier Lien Chan raised the following principles: "simplification of organizational structures, legitimization of agencies, rationalization of the work force, and modernization of management."

B. On Sept. 2, 1993, the 2,347th the Executive Yuan Council Meeting passed the "Administrative Reform Program."

II. Objectives

A. To establish a streamlined and efficient government that can respond to transformations in society, the economic status quo and the international environment, and to use organizational reform to drive administrative reform.

B. Taking the number of budgeted staff employees in 1994 as a baseline, administrative agencies are to reduce this number by five percent over a period of three years.

III. Scope of implementation

A. The Executive Yuan and administrative agencies under its jurisdiction.

B. Such duties and functions of the central and local governments as population affairs, land administration, conscription, social administration, public housing, construction, the police, taxation, social education, industrial and commercial management, water conservancy, vehicle administration, harbor administration, tourism, sanitation, environmental protection, agriculture, forestry and labor affairs will be revised and clearly assigned.

IV. Implementation Strategies

A. In response to demands placed on administrative affairs by transformations in the domestic and international environment, a holistic and integrative approach will be adopted in revising the organizational structure of government agencies and enhancing their functioning.

B. In conjunction with the amendment of the Executive Yuan's organic law, subordinate agencies will be reorganized and their duties reallocated.

C. In accordance with the provisions of the constitution, the respective duties and functions of central, provincial and municipal governments will be revised and clarified in order to enhance working efficiency.

D. Fixed manpower quotas will be assigned agencies according to the increase or decrease of their workloads. While striving to check inflation in the total number of civil service workers, there will also be an effort to match human resources with the tasks that need to be done.

E. It has been proposed that surplus manpower funding resulting from reducing the number of personnel will be preferentially used in adjusting salaries, thereby raising employees' morale.

V. Simplification Measures

A. Section concerning organizational structure: The creation or elimination of agencies will be conducted in accordance with the following principles:

1. Principles for implementing cutbacks or mergers:

(1) Services are to be reassigned in accordance with the Executive Yuan's organic law.

(2) In cases where the organic regulations of agencies have not been put on a regular legal footing, they shall be abolished or merged with other units following review.

(3) The mission for which the agency or unit was established has been completed or the policy it implemented has been changed.

(4) The agency or unit's services or functions have shrunk or overlap with those of another unit.

(5) The agency or unit's functions and duties could be executed more economically if carried out by an outside party via commissioning or authorization.

(6) The area of jurisdiction of a local distributary agency or unit should be revised.

(7) A task force that no longer has a reason for being should be abolished or merged with another unit.

(8) A unit that has been evaluated as being ineffective should be abolished or merged with another unit.

2. Principles for expansion or establishment of agencies or units:

(1) Apart from agencies that must be established by law or to meet urgent policy or national development needs, no requests whatsoever may be made for expanding or establishing agencies or units.

(2) As for proposed agencies that have received approval but have not yet been established, in cases where the new agency is reorganized from an existing agency and there is no increase in personnel, the establishment may proceed according to plan, but in all other cases there must be another review and report to the Executive Yuan; apart from cases meeting the aforementioned conditions, the establishment of all agencies that have not yet won approval must postponed.

B. Section concerning number of personnel:

1. A hiring freeze should be instituted in all cases where it is judged to be unnecessary to fill an agency's existing vacant positions in order to carry out the agency's services. In the case of superfluous employees, a review should be instituted and the necessary measures taken. Taking each administering agency as a basic unit and taking the number of personnel in the agency's budget (including contract hires) as a baseline, the number of personnel must be reduced by five percent over a period of three years. In principle the reduction during the first year should be not less than two percent.

2. After carrying out comprehensive planning, the number of personnel to be reduced at each agency should be determined by the responsible authorities in light of the agency's services and available manpower. A large reduction in personnel should be made in cases where an agency's service responsibilities have shrunk.

3. In the case of agency workers hired under contract, they should be immediately dismissed when the project they are working on has been completed; in addition, the total number of such workers should be reduced.

4. All agencies should think in terms of cost effectiveness in hiring staff. In order to avoid increasing the number of personnel, existing manpower in the agency in question and units under its jurisdiction should be drawn from first when meeting the needs of increases in services.

5. In the case of construction projects handled as individual cases, having manpower sit idle at the completion of a project should be avoided by either reducing the number of personnel at the administering agency by the corresponding amount or reviewing the possibility of transferring personnel to other construction units.

6. The manpower needed by agencies for carrying out information- related services should, as much as possible, be obtained either by retraining existing employees or by making use of outside contractors. If, during the course of computerization, a service can now be carried out automatically, consideration should be made of cutting personnel who are no longer needed.

7. Except for meeting the needs of major projects, important national construction programs and newly established agencies, under no circumstances may there be requests for additional personnel.

8. Consideration should be made to readjusting the manpower savings resulting from the delegation of authority to the correct levels in individual agencies.

VI. Operational Procedures and Scheduled Progress

A. This program's procedures take each administering agency, including central government ministries, bureaus, departments and offices, along with provincial and municipal government agencies, as a basic unit, and review each separately.

B. All agencies should appoint as a convener an assistant agency head or other person at a similar level, and form a project task force to carry out a review. In addition, the review results should first be included in the "Budgeted Personnel Reduction Planning Form" for submission to the administering agency; the administering agency should dispatch personnel to supervise the process when necessary. All administering agencies should mail the aforementioned planning form to the Central Personnel Administration (Executive Yuan) by December 31, 1993 for collation and submission to the Executive Yuan for future reference.

C. The number of personnel to be trimmed according to this program should be subtracted when compiling the annual budget.

D. Each administering agency should comply with current and future administrative focal areas by reviewing and revising the organizational duties and functions of itself and the agencies under its jurisdiction, and completing an organization and manpower adjustment review report. If the services the agency is responsible for involve both central and local governments, the central government administering agency should summon local agencies to discuss ways of clarifying the separation of duties and compose an organizational revision report encompassing both local and central government agencies. After a preliminary review of the two aforementioned reports by the administering agency, they shall be submitted to the Executive Yuan prior to December 31, 1993 for deliberation by the task force studying revision of the Executive Yuan's organic law.

VII. Control and Evaluation

A. The implementation of this program in government agencies should be subject to the control and evaluation of research and evaluation units.

B. Relevant Executive Yuan agencies should be convened to organize a project task force to carry out investigations of government agencies.

C. Each agency should complete a simplification results form following the end of each year and submit it to the administering agency for review within one month. The administering agency must then submit this form within two months to both the Central Personnel Administration and Research, Development and Evaluation Commission for collation and submission to the Executive Yuan for future reference.

D. The results from this program have been included as evaluation items for agencies' work during the fiscal year; relevant personnel in agencies with outstanding results should be rewarded by higher- level authorities with prizes and encouragement.

VIII. Supplementary Rules

A. The number of personnel trimmed from administering agencies that have already drawn up manpower reduction plans over the last three years should be calculated together with results under this program.

B. In the case of agencies stationed abroad, agencies that have been established for less than three years and agencies responsible for major national construction projects, difficulties in reducing the required number of personnel should be reported to the Executive Yuan as a special case.

C. In the case of agencies (units) that are abolished due to the implementation of this program or current employees who are among those to be cut, the administering agency should transfer the employees involved according to their qualifications and areas of expertise to other agencies where they are needed. Employees whose specialties are not needed should be given training to facilitate placement. Those who cannot be placed should be dismissed with severance pay or allowed to retire according to regulations. In the case of personnel who retire or are dismissed with severance pay after their agency has been dissolved, the date when they reach the retirement age will be taken as a baseline and a month's salary (including basic monthly salary, specialization bonus and manager's bonus when appropriate) will be given to them for every month early that they retire or are dismissed with severance pay. The maximum additional severance payment will be equivalent to six months' salary.

D. If the employees of agencies that have been dissolved will meet the requirements for voluntary retirement within one year after the time their agency has been dissolved, they must be employed until the date they meet retirement requirements by the administering agency if there are vacancies in the agencies under its jurisdiction; in this case, however, the aforementioned regulations on additional severance pay do not apply.

E. The skilled workers and office assistants under the jurisdiction of government agencies should be dealt with according to the "Labor Replacement Measure Promotion Program for Agencies Under the Executive Yuan."

F. The administering agency for each public enterprise should draw up and implement a simplification plan in accordance with this program.