Department of Government Ethics

3. Radio Broadcasting of Historical Stories on Integrity

DOGE and Taipei Broadcasting Station worked together to create scripts for a special topic –“from the Ancient to the Contemporary, Voices of Integrity “. The scripts were broadcast on the “Take a Break and Loosen Up” program on weekdays in December, 2013, at noon on FM93.1. As a feature, Mayor Hau recorded a prologue for the program, inviting-listeners to observe the past and to foresee the future, to learn from the history, and to fight corruption together.

Mayor Hau constantly emphasizes that probity is the most precious asset of Taipei City Government. To encourage more citizens to participate in anti-corruption events, DOGE worked with Taipei Broadcasting Station to gather interesting historical stories from ancient China. As one of the historical stories goes, the empire of the Ming dynasty Chu Yuan-Zhang hated corruption so much that he treated corrupt government officials as his enemies and wanted to kill them. However, he found that killing or imposing severe penalties only were no solution to ending corruption: The need for an appropriate control system and preventive measures to deter corruption hence comes to being. According to DOGE, it is expected that, through the broadcasting of these interesting historical stories, public awareness on the ills of corruption, as well as the importance of preventing it, will be boosted and reinforced.

The AAC was established in 2011, and since then, the agency has promoted a New Concept of Integrity—based on people’s interest. Its mission is to request the ethics departments to put more efforts on giving early warnings so as to stop corruption offences from happening. In response to AAC’s new concept of integrity which puts emphasis on prevention of corruption, DOGE plans to send out more anti-corruption messages and slogans through radio broadcasting, MRT advertising light boxes and all sorts of promotion platforms to make sure civil servants as well as the public understand how severely corruption could harm a society and its people, thus raising public awareness of fighting and preventing corruption to reach the goal of zero-tolerance towards corruption.

4. Tour Seminars and Workshops on Anti-corruption Laws for Public Servants

To build an outstanding team of employees and to invest in human capital with the quality of integrity, in addition to the ethics departments in Taipei City Government holding education training seminars for employees irregularly, the city government also provides its employees with various integrity law lessons at the Department of Civil Servant Development, which is an on-the-job training center for city employees. The courses are held annually for public servants to strengthen their knowledge of sunshine laws such as the Ethics Guidelines for Civil Servants, the Criminal Code, the Anti-Corruption Act, the Act on Property-Declaration by Public Servants, and the Act on Recusal of Public Servants Due to Conflicts of Interest.

During 2013 Taipei International Anti-Corruption Day, courses at tour seminars and workshops were especially tailored to meet the needs of frontline personnel who face citizens on a daily basis. The law courses were to teach them to accurately, honestly, appropriately perform their duties and to be aware of the risk of committing corruption crimes as well.

Wang Wen-De, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Overall Planning at the Ministry of Justice, and PA Huang Guan-Yun, from the Taipei District Prosecutors Office, were invited as instructors at this year’s seminars. Through the analysis of anti-corruption regulations and actual cases, the instructors shared with frontline personnel the potential risk of committing corruption crimes, and the steps that should be taken to prevent it. The seminar aims to lower the dark figures of corruption in institutions, and encourage government workers to uphold integrity.

5. The 1209 International Anti-corruption Day Carnival

In 2011, a video clip was filmed in Taiwan, Lebanon, Kenya, and Hungary by Transparency International (TI) that depicted people keeping silent and falling asleep about the happening of corruption. The video clip transmitted the message by splashing water on the face of people as a symbol to wake them up, so people’s awareness to anti-corruption could be triggered. In response to the above mentioned message, Taipei City Government hosted an anti-corruption day carnival Time to Wake Up—Let’s Do it at Taipei Zoo on December 8. Mayor Hau attended the event, praised and presented certificates of appreciation to community college personnel and anti-corruption volunteers. Honored guests including Srirak Plipat, Regional Director of the Asia Pacific Department at TI, Germany, and Kung-Mao Chu, Director General of the AAC, participated in the event and showed their recognition of the city’s efforts on developing its corruption control system and preventive measures in recent years. In Mayor Hau’s speech, he pointed out that public servants working for Taipei City must obey the city’s ethical guidelines, and follow the declaration procedure when accepting gifts. If public servants fail to do so, they will definitely face serious consequences. He also emphasized that upon encountering unreasonable or unfair problems, one should bravely and clearly speak out for himself/herself; if citizens find any improper conduct from public servants, they are encouraged to blow the whistle and report them; this way, public servants can better meet the expectations of the public.

In order to reach out to the public, Taipei City Government has started to promote the Together We Join, Transparent Taipei event since 2005 in response to the International Anti-Corruption Day. Students, the public, and government employees have been invited to participate in the event, hoping to foster the concept of zero-tolerance towards corruption within citizens’ minds. The last event of the year, the December 9 International Anti-Corruption Day Carnival, was specially held at Taipei Zoo to promote anti-corruption concepts.

In order to attract park visitors to join the anti-corruption event, there was a display of achievements from the anti-corruption workshops at community colleges in Taipei City. Outstanding works and unique shows, for example, the Hand-in-Hand We PICTURE an Upright Character in Me from Daan Community College, and the Probity March-and-Sing Ukulele Performing Workshop from Zhongshan Community College, were exquisitely displayed. Interactive stands including the Road Excavation Geographical Information System which received Administrative Transparency Awards of Taipei City, and the Anti-Corruption Storytelling House from the AAC, attracted a significant number of people. The If Kids Theatre Company was invited for a mobile theatre performance on integrity, and held an anti-corruption quiz game with prizes for the public at the end of the play.

DOGE also pointed out that the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published by TI in early December, 2013 ranked Taiwan 36th out of 177 countries the island advanced by one place from last year. In order to let the world know the determination of Taipei City Government in pursuit of integrity, honesty and transparency, Mr. Srirak Plipat and Mr. Rukshana Nanayakkara, honored guests from the organization, were invited to join the events. On top of all these efforts, Taipei City Government will continue to be vigilant and remain committed to gradually achieving its external supervision mechanism, taking firm action, and expanding its energy in fighting and preventing corruption.